Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Pastor Heather…
Good morning, everybody. Welcome to prayer.
There’s an invitation right now…
I think there’s an invitation right now. Right now, angels are circling around the throne in heaven singing “Holy, holy, holy.” So there’s an invitation right now just to leave this earthly world for a moment. Leave this natural realm and enter into the Holy of Holies. We are seated with Him in heavenly places. And so now see yourself as we worship. Let’s sing that song again, but as you worship, see yourself in the throne room of heaven. And the angels are circling around singing, “holy, holy, holy.” See yourself bowing at His throne. Let the things of this world pass away this morning, and let’s take a moment to worship Him and give Him the honor that’s due to Him. He’s worthy. He’s so worthy. Let’s sing that again and picture yourself up in the throne of heaven.
Prayed…
Father, we invite your glory to invade this place this morning, to invade our hearts, to invade the homes of those watching online, to invade their cars, their workplaces. Father, right now just invade us. Kingdom of Heaven, invade right now. As we endeavor to go into the Holy of Holies and to worship you, to magnify you, to lift you on high, and to give you the glory that you are so worthy of this morning.
Invade our hearts, invade our families, invade our minds, invade our churches, invade our communities, invade our state, invade our nation, invade this world.
Sweep, sweep, sweep through with holy, holy, holy fire… Sweeping through our nation.
Oh, we say you are welcome. We make space in our heart for you, Father.
Cleaning house in our hearts, in our minds, in our homes, in our churches.
Strongholds…
I wanted to talk about strongholds today. And I’m going to read 2nd Corinthians 10:3–7 in the Amplified.
“For though we walk (live) in the flesh, we are not carrying on our warfare according to the flesh and using mere human weapons. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not physical [weapons of flesh and blood], but they are mighty before God for the overthrow and destruction of strongholds, 5 [Inasmuch as we] refute arguments and theories and reasonings and every proud and lofty thing that sets itself up against the [true] knowledge of God; and we lead every thought and purpose away captive into the obedience of Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One), 6 Being in readiness to punish every [insubordinate for his] disobedience, when your own submission and obedience [as a church] are fully secured and complete. 7 Look at [this obvious fact] which is before your eyes. If anyone is confident that he is Christ’s, let him reflect and remind himself that even as he is Christ’s, so too are we.”
The Squirrel—a metaphor!
We had a squirrel in our basement on Sunday. My son came upstairs and he is like, “There’s a live squirrel in the basement.” I was like, “Okay.” So my mom happened to be over, thankfully. Because she is fearless. She came downstairs. It was quite the scene. I mean, we were running around trying to get it. We opened the deck door and tried to shoo it out. It ended up going into Noah’s closet. So he’s like “That sleeping bag was in a different place before, so I think it’s in my closet.” So my mom’s in there with the broom and she’s poking. And then of course the squirrel, it was like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation comes flying out of the closet. I’m screaming. Noah’s like, “Grandma, watch out!” And the squirrel doesn’t know where to go. Anyways, we finally get it out of the house and we slam the door. And “Whew!”
But the Lord was reminding me this morning to share that, because sometimes we are like that with our thoughts. A squirrel gets in where it’s not supposed to be. And it’s running around and we’re just… and some of us with our thoughts, we might be like, “Well, that’s just how we are now. We’re just a family that has squirrels in our basement. Let’s just give into it. It just is what it is.”
No!
We were like, “We need to get this out of here.” It’s destructive. It’s annoying. It’s gross. It’s freaky. Who wants to live with a squirrel in their basement?
But sometimes we’re like that with our thoughts. These things that will invade our fortress, right? Our house is like our fortress. That squirrel was invading my fortress.
So what do we do now? Are we just like, “Well, let’s start feeding it. We’ll give it a name. We’ll just… ‘Noah, sorry. You have a squirrel in your closet now.’ He’s a pet now.”
No! We get it out!
But sometimes with those thoughts, we’re not willing to do what it takes to get it out. It’s like, “Well, it is what it is.” Everybody says that—It is what it is. What does that even mean? “It is what it is.” So I just want to encourage you today, just like… Now I’m going to have to follow up. I’m going to have to walk around my house. Where did it get in? How did it get in? We’re going to have to have a professional come out and figure out how to plug wherever the squirrel came in. Did we leave a door open? Did we leave a window open? What happened? How did it get in the house? Right?
Sometimes we’re casual with our thoughts…
And sometimes with our thoughts, we’re just so casual with them. We’ll just entertain them and let them just run amok. Instead of being like, “Wait, wait… where did that get in? What is that thought? Where did I get that thought? Whose voice is that? Is that my voice? Is that God’s voice? Is that the enemy’s voice? Is that the world’s voice? Is that my neighbor’s voice? My teacher’s voice? My parents’ voice? Whatever…
But taking every thought captive. Let me tell you, we were ready to take that squirrel captive. We were not like, “Oh well…” So I just want to break down just a couple things in that scripture and then we’re going to take down some strongholds this morning. Amen?
Our weapons are not physical, but mighty before God. So the word “mighty” or “powerful” is Dunatos. And it means “strong, mighty, powerful, able, possible, influential, excelling, having power for something, capable.” We’re capable.
“For the overthrow and destruction.” And that word “destruction” is Kathairesis. It’s a “pulling down, a taking down, a raising, destroying, razing, destroying, demolition, figuratively extinction, destruction, pulling down.” So we’re going to pull down those strongholds. And then strongholds is a “stronghold, fortress, strong defense, fortified, military stronghold, a strong walled fortress, a heavily fortified containment, anything on which one relies. It’s used figuratively of a false argument in which a person seeks shelter or a safe place to escape reality.” The Aramaic word for strongholds can also be translated “rebellious castles.” Who wants to live in a rebellious castle?
Not me.
So that’s what those strongholds are. And sometimes we see it in a way of like, this is a stronghold, something that I need out of my life. And yes, that’s true. But also sometimes those are strongholds that there’s some that we’re hiding in. It’s a rebellious castle. It’s a lie that we believe and it’s easier to sit in that rebellious castle than it is to seek His truth in that moment, in that thought.
Building a fortress brick by brick…
And then “in as much as we refute arguments and theories…” So the arguments there is “citadels or fortresses of argumentations.” So “every thought that we entertain that is contrary to God’s Word, it adds another brick to that fortress.”
So just think of that. Every time you have a thought that is contrary to His Word, whatever that is… Even if it’s just like “I have sickness in my body,” and every time you envision yourself going down that path of that sickness, let’s say. Okay, you’re building another brick into that fortress, another brick.
“Well, pretty soon, I’ll be in a wheelchair. That’s how my grandma was.”
“Well, pretty soon I’ll be like this. That’s how grandpa died.”
You start believing and you keep stacking up those bricks, creating a fortress of a rebellious castle.
But what does the Word say? The name of the Lord is a strong fortress and the godly run to Him and they are safe. Proverbs 18:10.
That is our fortress!
Not our thoughts.
Not our fears.
Not the things that try to exalt themselves above the Word of God.
He is our fortress.
And so what do we need to do? We need to take captive those thoughts. What does “take captive” mean? Like in war, to subdue, to ensnare, to make a prisoner, to subjugate, to bring under control every thought, purpose, design, the mind, the heart, soul, feelings, schemes, perceptions, purposes, intellects, dispositions, devices. And make it obedient to Christ.
Obedience means submissiveness, compliance, attentive hearkening or submission. Submission isn’t the world’s favorite word. Obedience and submission. “Well, I just want to do what feels right to me. And this is just my path. This is what’s right for me… for me, me, me, me, me!” Right?
But obedience, submission to who? To Christ. Bringing it into submission.
What is your stronghold?
So I just want to ask you, what is your stronghold today? And you might have a few. So everybody just close your eyes. What’s that stronghold? That most prevailing thought that distracts you from what the Word of God says? That rebellious castle that you have… that fortress that you have around your heart that’s keeping you from believing what the Word says. What is it?
Sickness?
Poverty?
Shame?
Feeling less than enough?
Less than capable?
Insecurities?
What is your false argument in which you’re taking shelter today? I want you to see it. Maybe you are envisioning a future that is not the future that He has for you. Maybe you’re seeing yourself going down a path of sickness or poverty. There’s a lot of fear and lack and you’re playing that DVD over and over and over again in your head. You’re seeing yourself walking down a path that is not the path that He has for you. That is less than what the Word says you are.
So just see it right now. Hold it in your hand because we’re going to take it captive this morning and we’re going to bring it under the obedience of Christ. And now you find a scripture. Think of a scripture that is contrary to this narrative that the enemy is trying to speak over your life.
For me, when I was young, it was that I was not loved, that I didn’t have a purpose. And so my whole life, I am fighting that narrative. But I want to say something else real quick too. A lot of the times that one thing that you’re fighting the hardest is the thing you are most anointed in to set others free. And so anytime you hear me speak, you’ll probably hear me speak on the love of God and purpose. And that’s the thing that the enemy tried to convince me I didn’t have. Why? Because he is afraid of that weapon in my hand. He’s afraid that when I recognize who I am, I’m going to start opening prison doors for other people instead of staying trapped in my own prison in my own life.
Begin to cast that stronghold down…
So whatever that is, close your eyes. Hold it in your hand right now. And now we’re going to start. Let’s pray in tongues. And you just see what that is and you start casting it down. If you have English words, fine, use them. And if you don’t, let’s pray in tongues.
So now we bring these thoughts into obedience. We bring them captive before you, Lord. We say we will not believe these lies that say we’re sick, that say we’re poor, that say we’re less than, that say we’re unloved, that say we don’t have a plan, we don’t have a future, we don’t have a hope. Because we know what your Word says this morning. So we hold fast to your promises this morning. We speak over these fortresses. We speak over these walls. We say, “break every chain… every wall that’s holding us captive.” We pull down these strongholds. We say, “You are not welcome in this place. You’re not welcome in our thoughts. You’re not welcome in our hearts…”
Tearing down walls and thought patterns of years and years and years of lies. Speak your truth into their hearts, Lord. Show us how you see us… righteous, holy, without blemish, called with a purpose, more than conquerors. Every need we have is met. Our bodies are healthy, our families are whole. We have no fear of the future because we know who holds our tomorrows.
Help us, Father, to take those thoughts captive.
If you’ve thought this way for a long time, it will take a while to continue to cast it down, cast it down. You might be casting down that thought many times throughout the day, and that doesn’t mean you’re failing. It just means it takes a little while to rebuild those thoughts, to reroute those thoughts, to make those new paths. But it is possible.
Create new paths in your brain…
Dr. Caroline Leaf has talked about that, how our thought patterns are like ruts in our brain and it’s just the easy way for us to think because we’ve created a rut there, kind of like a path that’s worn down. But we can create new paths. It just takes that persistence and consistency.
And obviously the anointing of the Holy Spirit to help us. But bringing every thought captive, everything that is going to try to exalt itself above who God says you are… lies of the enemy, lies of the world, lies of those around you… words that have been spoken over you from your youth, whatever that might be.
