Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Pastor Ken…
Praying forward…
This morning, I want us to pray into the future. I would call it “praying forward.” Prayer is our opportunity—whether it’s individually or collectively like we’re gathered online or in this chapel this morning—to reach into another realm, a complete and abundant realm to take from that realm and implement it in this realm. Prayer is our ability to build a road over which our lives will travel, our church will travel, our nation will travel. Prayer is our opportunity to prepare a way where we don’t see a way.
Quote by Billy Graham…
And I was reminded of a couple of quotes on prayer. Firstly, this one comes from Billy Graham who once said that “Jesus’ whole life is outlined in the Gospels.” It was nothing more than a series of lessons on the power of prevailing prayer. It was how He conducted His life and ministry in the earth, in His earthly ministry. He prayed into the future. He leaned into the plan of God through intimacy and time with His Father and then walked it out practically and naturally later that day or down the road.
Quote by E.M. Bounds…
E.M. Bounds, who I’ve dubbed the “Professor of Prayer,” once said, “Great leaders in the Bible were great pray-ers. They were not leaders because of brilliancy of thought, because they were exhaustless in resources, because of their magnificent culture or native endowment, but because by prayer they could command the power of God.”
Quote by Angus Buchan…
And yet another man by the name of Angus Buchan once said, “There is power in prayer. What men work, men work. But when men pray, God works.”
I like that.
Quote by Pastor Lynne…
Pastor Lynne writes in one of her books, “Whispers From the Secret Place,” a small devotional… I was thinking about what to share just by way of devotional this morning, and this kind of just struck me because of the moment of history we find ourselves in. Maybe because of where a lot of people are at, because of where we’re at as a church.
“There are some fresh and new steps that are ahead for us. God is at work doing something new and He’s preparing us to step out of the norm. He is preparing us to step out of what’s comfortable and convenient and what we’ve known up until this point. He’s preparing us to live by faith.”
That’s the command of scripture each and every day to live by faith in a constant obedience and trust in His nature, in His promises, and who we know Him to be. Because it’s in those steps of faith, it’s in those acts of obedience, it’s in that decision to follow Him and take the road less traveled, that we unlock the true potential that lies within us, that we unlock the purpose for our ministry and for our departments and for our family callings.
There’s so much more that lies beneath the surface. It lies on the inside of each and every one of us. That lies right in this ministry and in your ministry, in your home, in your business. God is decided. He wants to bring forth. He wants to bring us. It’s really clear in the scripture, His will is to do good and not harm. His will is to bring us to a flourishing finish to continue and advance the good work He’s already begun in us.
The Spirit will come upon you mightily…
It says in Samuel 10:6, Amplified, “Then the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you mightily and you will be turned into another man.” Speaking of Saul of old.
Pastor Lynne writes…
“If we are to walk with God, we must expect the unexpected. We must always be flexible in His hands, ready to do what He asks, and go where He leads even when we haven’t planned for it and don’t feel prepared.”
Oh, that’s a word for someone here today… perhaps all of us. So in a moment, we’re going to pray into the future. Prayer is our ability to process the plan of God, to put provision in place, to make a way where your eyeballs don’t see a way. It’s okay if you don’t see a way. It’s okay if it hasn’t changed. It’s okay if you still feel not so well, maybe physically. God’s not done yet. The glorious thing is that…
We can choose to go by the way of faith today.
We can choose to navigate by the Word today.
We can choose to use our voice and our vocal chords and our will together in unison to build a road over which you will travel later today, later this week, later this month, as you go through 2025.
There is a gift inside each of us…
I’ve heard Pastor Lynne more than once say that she has been aware through the years that she’s often praying out, sometimes as much as two years in advance in other tongues and in the spirit. Recognize that there is a gift on the inside of each of us. A prophetic gift. An inspired gift of the spirit. A teacher. A guide, that being the Holy Spirit. The Bible says you have an unction, an inspiration of the Holy One on the inside of you. And when you give yourself to prayer, that’s what the Bible says of the early church. They often gave themselves to prayer. It wasn’t an afterthought or just a minor item on their checklist. Their whole checklist was to seek God, was to pursue Him, was to know Him.
And in that supernatural divine engagement with their Heavenly Father, are we with our Heavenly Father? The outflow of that is heaven to earth. The outflow of our relationship is to be steps of faith that unlock the impossible, that turn around improbable situations that release and unfold the plan of God in the coming days like you have not seen before.
We are in an acceleration in the plan of God…
I’ll just say it again prophetically: we are in an acceleration in the plan of God. Will you sit by and watch it go by or will you get in? And one of the avenues or onramps to getting in, is prayer. Setting aside time to lift up holy hands and worship Him, surrender your life to Him. Speak forth those words you’re sensing in your heart. They’re not inconsequential. They’re not happenstance.
The Holy Spirit is our coach…
Pastor Lynne has taught us through the years to notice the phrases and the words that are arising from your spirit because your spirit has been recreated in the image of Jesus and it’s in contact and joined directly with the Son of God, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jesus.
So He’s there coaching us. He’s there cheering us on. He’s there whispering words to declare that do real work when they’re released out of your mouth by faith, whether they be in the spirit or in your known language.
The Holy Spirit is able to give you the “want to…”
I found that prayer is indispensable for the simple reason that there have been times in my life where I sense God leading me to do certain things and go in a certain direction. And in my natural self, I did not want to go there. I did not want to do that. It was just too uncomfortable. It’s going to take too much work. It’s going to be outside my comfort zone. I don’t feel my personality’s wired for that. All kinds of reasons I could come up with. But I walked with God enough to know that I don’t even have to want to do it. If I’ll just turn myself over to Him one day at a time, yield myself to Him, the Bible’s really clear. He’s able to even give you the “want to.” He’s able to will in you to do His good pleasure.
There are seasons of waiting in His presence…
Secondly, I’ve learned that as you pray, especially in other tongues, and there’s seasons of waiting in this presence, it’s the aura and presence of heaven that eeks into the pores of your insides and is able to change your perspective and your outlook, is able to cause you to become pollinated with vision and perspective and strategies and solution and something that really starts to excite you. And that’s the will of God. That’s what this relationship with Him is all about. That’s what prayer is all about it. It’s bringing what we have, which is virtually nothing or something that’s not so good and exchanging it through time in His presence, through time in prayer… We exchange what little we have, which is really just our time, for what He has. And that’s all things that pertain to this life and living godly.
There’s a next level…
So there’ve been times and seasons where as I’ve prayed, He strengthened me so that I could one day get up and obey and follow Him to the next level of what He had called me to. There’s a next level. There’s a next step for us as a church, for us as individuals, for our families, for your children.
As you surrender to Him, you’ll want what He wants…
The old-time men and women of prayer understood that prayer… if you give yourself to it and you take up the assignment of prayer, the call of prayer… they understood that it’s your ability to command the power of God. Not because you want what you want, but because you’re surrendered to Him once again. And more and more, you want what He wants. So your words of decree and your prayers of faith and your worship releases and commands the power of God to go to work, to change the trajectory of your family members or situations that He has asked you to pray out and pray through.
This is God’s design. This is God’s MO, His mode of operation that we would answer the call to pray and to seek His face each and every day. And that the natural, that the organic, that the almost effortless outflow of that would be His plan, His glory, His salvation, His abundance—Heaven on the Earth.
Quote by Pastor Lynne…
Let me finish what Pastor Lynn wrote in this short devotional entitled, “When God Calls.” She said reading 1st Samuel 9:10, “I’m struck by the fact that Saul had no idea that God was about to make him king of Israel. He was just wandering about looking for his father’s lost donkeys. Then in one encounter with the prophet Samuel, God changed the course of Saul’s entire life. In one day, he was called and anointed to be king. The Spirit of God came upon him.”
So one encounter, just one moment with God, just one morning prayer, just one time getting up at the midnight hour in your home just to be with Him. Just to honor Him. Just to recognize and acknowledge the God of heaven who’s come down to inhabit your life, your soul.
What makes Christianity unique?
I was reminded the other day somebody talked about what the greatest thing about Christianity is above all the other great religions of the world. What’s unique about Christianity? It’s that God chose to inhabit our lives, to take up residence, to make us into the temple of the living God. All other religions, God is out there somewhere. He’s a far off “deity.” And our God chose to live inside of us, to go with us today and every day, to be on the inside.
Lynne said…
“The Spirit of God came upon him and turned him into another man. And in an instant God equipped Saul to do something he never would have dreamed he could do. So it is at times in our lives as believers, suddenly God interrupts our orderly, predictable existence and calls us to do something we never thought about or planned for.”
Can I just insert— “So get ready!”
There are some things you never thought about, felt qualified to do, planned out in your best effort to map out your life. God has some things that are going to, in a glorious way, interrupt and take your life in a fresh direction.
We know nothing about those calls until they are upon us. That’s why it’s important that we heed and respond to His subtle promptings and leadings. Because He knows what’s next. You don’t. But I can tell you it’ll be good even if it’s hard. Most often it’s hard before it becomes easy, because perhaps God’s reshaping us and changing us, and increasing our endurance and perfecting our faith. Just before you see the breakthrough… just before the answer is received.
Pastor Lynne says…
“Such a call came to Ananias in Acts 9 when God unexpectedly spoke to him and said, Arise and go to the street called Straight and inquire at the house of Judas, for one called Saul of Tarsus. Ananias never planned to be sent on such a potentially dangerous yet eternally significant mission. No doubt, he felt frightened and unprepared. He had other things he wanted to do that day. But he set them aside and did what God asked.”
Oh, come on! That’s like bottom-line Christianity right there. Setting some things aside and doing what He asks.
“A call like that can come to us from heaven at any time. To answer it, we have to make new decisions. Decisions that demand steadfast and courageous, unselfish decisions that must be backed by fortitude, which flinches from nothing and perseveres to the end. But we can make those decisions confidently knowing that what God did for Saul in the Old Testament and for Ananias in the New, He will do for us too. When He calls us, He will also equip us with spiritual energy we need to fulfill His call.”
Somebody just needs to say, “Okay, I take that, Ken.”
I take that as a word that He’s equipping me. That though I feel weak, there’s a secret in weakness that when you’re weak, He is strong.
That He’s going to equip you.
That He will be with you.
That Jesus was correct in saying, Don’t let your heart be troubled, including in these end of days.
He is with us even to the end of the age…
Don’t let it run off the rails and fright and concern and fear and anxiety in whatever that is for you. Be mindful and remember that He is with us always, even to the end of the age. Right there, to equip us and maybe you don’t feel it, but once you step out and take that step of obedience, He’ll be there.
