Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Worship leader Kathy…
Good morning, everybody.
I’ve been thinking about the Fatherhood of God, but from the aspect of all the different parts of what that means. How not is He just good, right? But there’s a reason He’s called the wonderful counselor, and that’s actually an aspect of a good father, right? A good father is also protective. So He’s our protector. A good father is safe. You can run to Him with all of your baggage and all of your emotions and all your junk, and He’s just a good place to be.
Isaiah 9:6 says, “Wonderful counselor, everlasting Father and Prince of Peace.” And what I realized this morning is we like to separate all three of those, but they’re actually very connected. Because He is the Everlasting Father, He is the Prince of Peace and a Wonderful Counselor.
So we’re going to focus on different aspects of who God is as our Father and how much He loves us.
Pastor Heather…
As Kathy was singing about who He is… He’s a good Father. We’re safe in His hands. We’re loved. Every need that we have is met by a character of God, is met by a facet of who He is.
God can meet every need of your life…
There’s nothing in your life—a need or a want—that cannot be met by God. Because He created us. He created us to love Him, to worship Him, to seek Him. He created us to be in union, to be in fellowship with Him. So if there’s anything that you feel in your life is lacking, He can meet that. We just have to find that connection, find that facet of who He is, ask Him to show you, “What am I missing, Father? What am I missing about who you are? What is blocking me from receiving this facet of who you are, this facet of your goodness.”
God brings a cleansing and restoration to your life…
And sometimes there’s mindsets that we have, or old thoughts or patterns or traditions or religion… We walk through life and we pick up a lot of junk along the way… a lot of baggage, a lot of wrong thinking, a lot of hurt, a lot of… We get a little bruised and bumped along the way. But through all that, there’s a refreshing that comes when we’re in His presence. There’s a cleansing that comes. There’s a restoration that comes. But you have to allow Him to do that work inside of you.
He can only work in your life if you let Him…
And if you’re hiding pieces of your heart, pieces of who you are, pieces of your character from Him, pieces of your life… If you’re hiding those things or you’re ashamed of those things or you don’t want to invite Him into those areas of your life, He can’t come in and change them. Because He’s a perfect gentleman. He is not going to bust your door down. He’s knocking. The Word says He’s knocking at your door. Will you let Him in?
God made us with a huge capacity within us…
And so I feel like as humans, we have such a large capacity within us. Our spirits are so big and roomy. When Dr. James Tan was here, he talked about how Jesus cast thousands of demons out of that man that went into the herd of pigs. And that herd was thousands of pigs. So think of that: there was thousands of demons inside him. How much bigger is our capacity to allow the Spirit of God to reside in us? You think of that. How big we are inside. How big our spirits are.
Invite Jesus into those unpleasant areas of your life…
So all that to say, there’s many areas of our lives where we can just close a door to one area of life from God.
“Well, God, you know my past. I don’t really want you meddling with that…” or “This is part of my personality. I don’t want you to meddle with that. That’s just how I am. I’m just blunt. I just say it like it is.”
Okay. Well maybe invite Jesus into that. Maybe He can show you a better way to be frank, or invite Jesus into your past. Maybe there’s some pain there that you have just covered or denied. And I’m not saying dig everything up. That’s not what I’m saying. But if there’s something that’s preventing you from moving forward to who God created you to be, you need to invite God into that. And sometimes there’s just an old way of thinking.
Pastor Heather’s personal testimony…
For instance, because of the way that I was raised, I didn’t have a father figure in my life, like a steady father figure till later in life. But by then I had already formed my opinions of who a man is, who a father is, who a protector is. I already formed opinions. And in my opinion as a young girl, it was people that left. It was people you couldn’t rely on. You had to trust in yourself. You had to do things on your own.
It took me a long time. And there’s still moments that I catch myself falling into that old pattern of thinking that people can’t be trusted. That people that are supposed to protect me and be in those areas in my life can’t be trusted, so I have to protect myself. I have to provide for myself. I have to take care of everything.
Learn to trust Him and ask for help…
And the Lord is so gracious. He’s so patient with us. And there’s times where I feel like I’ve taken care of one facet of that. And I’ve learned to trust. I’ve learned to ask for help. And then there are other days if I’m stressed, if there’s a lot going on, I’m going to fall into my old pattern. You see what I’m saying? It’s just letting Him into those pieces of your life, letting Him heal those parts of yourself, the ugly parts, the parts you don’t want people to see. Because He loves you so much that He wants to go into every part of you.
A metaphor of house renovation…
It’s kind of like a house that’s being renovated. And if we had company over, we would close some of the doors to those messy rooms. But Jesus doesn’t want you to close those doors. He wants you to keep all those doors open so that He can go in. He can renovate those spaces in your heart. And a lot of times in a renovation, it gets messier before it gets nicer.
And I found that sometimes with God too, it can be a little messy in the restoration process because you are learning new things. You’re getting rid of old things. And there is a work to that. But there’s grace for it and there’s presence in that.
October has been a really busy month here at the church, and it’s a blessing. But in that also, I have to guard my heart against the busyness and the stress or the pressure that I could feel to perform or to please my leaders or all those things are good. And even today, I’m leading prayer this morning. Tonight I’m leading LW Women. Tomorrow I’m officiating a wedding. Next week there’s a dinner that I’m planning and so there’s a lot happening. And this morning, I’m praying “What do you want to share with your people today?” That’s what I always pray. Just “I yield myself as a pen of a ready writer.” I yield my tongue to you, Holy Spirit, speak the words that your people need to hear today.” That’s what I always pray. Because I don’t want it to be about me. I want it to be about Him.
There is grace for the stress of the busy seasons…
And I really didn’t get anything in particular, I’ll be honest. I was like, okay. When I don’t feel like a certain pull, then I say, “Okay, we’re going to focus on Jesus.” Or I’m just going to be ready to flow and speak out the words He gives me in this moment. So as you see, I don’t have my phone, I don’t have notes. I’m just speaking as I feel He’s leading and guiding me. And as I was praying about that, the Lord was just showing me that sometimes when we feel that pressure and that stress and we’re in the press of whatever it is… it could even be good things. A lot of family celebrations or holidays are coming up. We start to get into that press. There’s grace in each moment for that moment.
Metaphor of collecting manna…
But if we try to race out ahead and get that thing that we think we need before we need it, it’s going to create stress and pressure. Kind of like, think of the children of Israel, right? And there was just enough manna for every day, for every moment. And they weren’t supposed to collect extra except on the Sabbath, right? And so all those beautiful children of Israel, what did they do? They went out and tried to save extra.
And we would too, just be honest. You would too.
Because you want to make sure you have enough for tomorrow. I have enough for this. I got to make sure that people are provided for. I have enough for my family. And so it was an honest mistake, but the word went forth that you just take what you need for that day.
You’ll have His strength when you need it…
And I believe God’s grace and God’s strength is like that. You will have it when you need it. But if you’re trying to race ahead and do things in your own strength, you won’t feel that equipping because you’re going to be working in your own strength.
We are to “be being filled” with the Holy Ghost…
But then He was also showing me how when you see the story about the virgins and the oil, they were supposed to have extra oil. So we’re not supposed to hoard up these natural things, the things that we think we need. But we are supposed to be, “be being filled” to overflowing.
Stock up with the presence of God…
So what can we stock up on? What can we hoard, so to speak? The presence of God! His oil. His grace. His provision. The things that He’s doing instead of the things that we’d want to save up and hoard. And so I think there’s a lot of people out there and you need some extra oil in your lamp today. And I know for myself, when I’m feeling that press and that crunch, I’m either burning my own oil or I’m out of oil and I need more oil.
Minister from the overflow that is in you…
When Dr. James Tan was here too, he said something great. He talked about every time he ministers, it’s out of the overflow because his oil is for him. So everything that we get as we come and enjoy his ministry is over, above and beyond his own reservoir of oil. So our own reservoir of oil should be filled to overflowing. It should “be being filled.” And when you feel that pressure and that crunch starting to happen, it means your reservoir is getting low or it’s empty and you’re running on your own strength.
Keep your reservoir filled with the oil of His presence…
That ministered to me this morning. And even as Kathy said too, it’s like when the Lord ministers to me, there’s probably other people that needed to hear that. Especially as we get in what could traditionally be a busy season with holidays and stuff, and we’re running and we’re going and we’re doing… just remember to keep your reservoir filled with that oil of His presence.
And so we’re going to do that right now. We’re going to go into His presence. We’re already in it, but we’re going to be intentional about recognizing who He is and that infilling inside of us. Out of us will flow rivers of living water. We need some rivers of living water, not just a drop, not just a little Dixie Cup drink, but rivers of living water. And the thing that’s great about rivers is that the water just keeps coming. It’s not a lake. It doesn’t get stale, right? Because the water is moving and there’s always more water coming down the pike.
