Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Pastor Heather…
Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Morning Prayer. My name is Heather Sibinski. I’m one of the pastors here at Living Word, and I thank you for joining us today.
Book: “In His Presence: The Secret of Prayer” by E.W. Kenyon…
I wanted to start out by reading a little bit out of the book, “In His Presence: The Secret of Prayer” by E.W. Kenyon. I was reading the first chapter this morning, and it just got me fired up. So I thought it would be a good thing to read to get us started today and just the reminder of how important prayer is. Obviously, we know. That’s why we come and those of you that tune in. So I’m preaching to the choir, I know. But it fired me up and got me excited. And I thought it’d be good to share.
So I’m reading out of chapter one here: “What Prayer Is.”
“Prayer is our need crying out for help. Prayer is the voice of faith to the Father. Prayer is born then of the sense of need and the assurance that the need will be met. Unbelief cannot pray. It can only utter words. Prayer is the Living Word in lips of faith. It is holding His Word up to Him in prayer like a mirror. He sees Himself in His Word. He said it, you are asking Him to do it. He promised, you hold that promise up to Him in prayer. You see, God and His Word are one, just as He and Jesus are one. He honored His Word by calling His Son the Word. His Son then and the Word are one.”
Think of the beginning of John, right?
“He was with the Son and in the Son, so is He in the Word and with the Word today. When we quote the Word, we quote Him. When we rest on the Word, we rest on Him. His Word is my contact with Him. His Word in the lips of faith is He Himself speaking. Then we are speaking His Word back to Him. We hold His Word as a bank holds our note. Just as we have collateral to make the note good, God has the ability to make His Word good. Prayer then is facing God with man’s needs, His promise to meet those needs. He taught us to pray. He taught us to trust His Word. Prayer is a part of God’s program for us. He encourages us to act on His Word. He is one with us in this prayer life. It is His way of saving, healing, and blessing men.
“Jesus said in Luke 18:1, ‘Men ought to always pray and not faint.’ I have two striking translations. ‘Men ought to always pray and not turn out badly,’ or ‘Men ought to always pray and not cave in.’ You see, prayer means vital contact with the Father. We are near enough to Him to breathe in His very presence. Prayer means that we have come boldly into the throne room and are standing in His presence. It is more than bringing Him on the scene. It is going into the presence of the Father and Jesus in an executive meeting, laying our needs before them, and making our requisitions for ability, for grace, healing for someone, or victory for someone, or financial needs. Whatever that need may be, we are making a demand upon Him.
“One day, when the crowd was pressing around the Master, Jesus said, ‘Someone has touched me.’ And they said, ‘Master, the multitude press thee and crush thee.’ But He answered, ‘No. Someone has made a demand upon My ability.’ (Twentieth Century Translation) That is a beautiful translation, and it is so suggestive. There cannot be any touching of the Master without the Master knowing it. When need touches Him, it makes a demand upon His ability to meet that need. And prayer is the way in which we touch Him. Prayer keeps man in close contact with the Father and the Word. It is a constant communion with the Father. And it enriches one spiritually. It illumines the Word, and it illumines the mind, and it freshens and heals the body.
“A strange feature about the prayer life is that it reaches to the uttermost parts of the world. When I pray for a man in London or in Africa, my spirit can send to him through the Father the blessing that he needs today. It is the original wireless method. It is the original radio means of communication. I speak here, and they are instantly blessed there. What a ministry!
“Prayer is a spiritual exercise. Your spirit is contacting the Father. Your spirit is reaching other human spirits through the Father. Paul said, ‘My spirit and the Lord Jesus will be with you in your deliberations.’ And it doesn’t seem credible. Since knowledge can’t grasp this, it is in the realm of the recreated spirit. We become so utterly one with Him. We become so utterly ruled and governed by the Word and by the Holy Spirit that we become masters of demons and of their work. We cast out demons with the Word. We pray for sick folks, and the diseases leave them. Weakness is destroyed by the strength of God. The very life of God flows out through our lips.
“Do you remember John 7:38–39, where Jesus says, ‘He that believe on me, as the Scripture has said, from within him shall flow rivers of living water’? The 20th Century Translation says, ‘Shall gush torrents of living water.’ Jesus is speaking of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling presence and how from our inner life of prayer there gushes forth a torrent of the very life of God that speeds on its way to that one who is in need. No one knows about the fullness of this. We are in the very infancy of this prayer life.
“Electricity has made the wireless and the radio realities. Electricity is God’s life in the mechanical world. Will that life in the mechanical world be stronger, more efficacious than His nature in our spirits? I can’t believe it. I know that our prayers bring the very presence of God upon men in any part of the world. You see, this is cooperating with Him. God, through you, is ruling the demons and evil forces all over the world. You become His voice in that name. The Word really becomes the sword of the Spirit, and it is waging war against demonic forces who rule men. His Word through your lips dominates these world forces. They don’t know it, but they feel cramped, bound, hindered, conquered. Jesus said, ‘In My name, ye shall cast out demons.’ That means rule them, govern them. God, through you then, can sway the nations. Now you can understand 2nd Corinthians 6:1, ‘Laboring together with Him.’ How? Through this marvelous prayer life. You have entered the holy priesthood in your prayer life. You can be God’s voice, His spokesman, His ambassador, His under-ruler in Jesus’ name through the word in your lips. You become God’s will toward a Satan-ruled world. You are taking Jesus’ place. You are acting in His stead. Once more, God is set free among men.
“You remember that God gave to Adam dominion over all the universe. That dominion was restored to us through Jesus, but it’s of no value to us unless we, the Jesus men and women, use that authority in His name. That authority was given to an individual, Adam. Now the authority is given to us as believers in the name. Jesus exercised that dominion. He ruled the sea. He ruled the fish. He ruled the human body. He made legs grow where they had been amputated. He fed the multitudes. Jesus did not exercise any authority or ability that is not latent in His name today.
“Someday, there’s going to arise a people who will take Jesus’ place and bless humanity as Jesus blessed them in dear old Galilee. Did not Jesus say in Matthew 28:18–20, ‘All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and earth. Go ye therefore, and make disciples,’ not converts, but students of the Word, ‘of all nations, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of this age.’ He is with us in the Word, that Living Word. He is with us in His name. He is with us in the presence of the Holy Spirit. We join forces with Him in this prayer life. That all authority was given to Him as the head of the church, and it is for the church to use. The authority that is in His name is in your lips. You let that authority loose. You give liberty, and it blesses men. He has made us sons and daughters. He has given us the name. He has given us the Holy Spirit. He has restored all that Adam lost and more. We are Satan’s rulers. We are masters of demons and laws that sin brought into being.
Why did He redeem us?
Why make us new creations?
Why make us righteous?
Why dwell in us?
Why give us the name? Why say that in Jesus’ name we could cast out demons?
What did He expect us to do after making us all this?
“Just to be good, neutral sons who never face the enemy, who simply read the Word but never act on it, who do not take our redemption and the new creation seriously? Is He mocking us? Is His Word like dry clouds in a drought? Is Satan invincible? Must we yield to Satan’s dominion and Satan-ruled circumstances? Must we say that tanks, planes, and bombs are to rule the world? Or is God still living and are we tied up with Him?
“I can feel God’s question there. He is saying to me, ‘Have you taken these facts as seriously as your nation has taken the draft laws? Is My redemption and new creation as real as the taxes? Does it mean anything?’ We must face this issue. We are surrounded by demonic forces that are dominating the human on earth, and if the church hasn’t authority over these, then no one has.
“But the church has. And prayer is our method and mode of dominating these diabolical forces that are wrecking civilization, taking our place. Every one of us has a place in the prayer life. God has no unused members. There isn’t a useless member in the physical body, neither is there in the spiritual body of Christ. God has planned with divine wisdom the body of Christ, and the moment that you were born into that body, you have your place in which to function. If anyone thinks that because of lack of training or lack of this and that, that he hasn’t a place, he is deluded by the enemy. You have a place.
“With that place comes responsibility. And with responsibility comes a reward or demerit. If you do not take your place in the family of God, in the church, and begin to function, the body of Christ is weakened because of it. Some have the idea that their special vocation is to criticize others because they are not doing more. The Holy Spirit is the only one who has this position. You have no right to set yourself up as a critic. Your business is to find your place and fill it. Until you do, you will pay the price.
“I want you to know, my brother, my sister, the price that you pay for staying out of the will of God is expensive. Take your place. Give yourself to meditation, prayer, and the study of Word. Do not allow anything to stand in the way of finding your place. Life will not mean much to you outside of His will. The big thing of this life is to be in the will of the Father.
“You say you were never called to give your life in prayer? No. You may not have been set apart by the Spirit for that special ministry, but I think it would be wise for you to spend enough time in prayer to get acquainted with the Father. (Luke 18:1) There are only two ways of getting acquainted: through the Word and by prayer. If you don’t take time to pray, you are losing out. You can’t say that you have no responsibility in the prayer life, for you have. To see a need is to have a call to prayer. There are people who will be utterly lost unless you take your place. Unless you do your part, men will cry against you through eternity. You can’t plead that you have too much work to do. You can pray while you work. You can’t put up the plea that you do not know how. You can learn if you wish. For you disobey the prayer call is for you to disobey the call of your Father.
“The prayer responsibility today is the most important thing of our lives. Did you ever realize that there are men and women who are defeated and breaking down in their businesses, homes, and spiritual lives because we haven’t prayed? Let me change it. Because you haven’t prayed? Ouch. You have been occupied with your pleasures and with your dreams and men and women staggering under the burdens you should have carried are breaking down. Oh God, have mercy on us.
“As you read this, do not read it simply to awaken you for the moment, but let prayer become like your eating, your business, or your home. If you are a mother or a wife and live at home, there are certain duties which you perform every day for your family. The greatest duty that you will ever perform for your family will be the prayer duty. It may be that it is no longer a privilege. You have thrown the privilege away. You have ignored it. It has become a stern duty. You must go back to your prayer closet and begin anew your fellowship with Him. Do it for the sake of your family, the boys and the girls, for the sake of your home and church, and God will honor you.
“Children are growing up in Christian homes without the restraining power of God over their lives. The reason is apparent: Mothers and Fathers have failed in their responsibilities in the prayer life. I call on you men and women who yourselves are to blame for the crime and the lawlessness of the youth of this generation to go and ask for forgiveness and take up your responsibilities now.”
Ending thoughts…
That’s a heavy ending there. But I just thought it was so good and such a getting back to those basics of that we’re all called to prayer. And prayer might not be your main ministry or your main heart, but we’re all to pray. Just like not everybody is an evangelist. Maybe not everybody is called to be a pray-er, but we are all called to pray in our own time, in our own way. And that’s why Jesus gave us authority.
Allegory of using our authority…
I was thinking of that this morning. He has given us authority. So if somebody gave me the key to their house, and then I get up to the house and I just keep banging on the door and I’m like, “Let me in, let me in.” And I’m calling them and I’m like, “I need to get into your house. Why won’t you let me in?” They’re saying, “I gave you the key. Take out that key and use it.”
I think sometimes as Christians, we’re a lot like that. We have the keys in our pocket, and we just keep on asking God, “Why won’t You do this? Why won’t You do that?” And He’s saying, “Use your authority that I’ve given you. I’ve given you that key. I’ve given you that authority. It’s your job to speak that out. It’s your job to bind. It’s your job to loose.”
He’ll honor it, and that’s where the power is. But we have to do it, right? That’s why He gave it to us, because we are His hands and feet on this earth right now. We are His mouthpiece. So with that being said, we’re going to go into prayer, and we’ll just go wherever the Holy Spirit wants to take us today.
