Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Pastor Ken…
Well, good morning to those of you joining us. Good to see you guys this Tuesday morning. Happy Tuesday.
Quote by Mark Brazee…
We’re going to worship here in just a bit, but I thought I would just share something as a point of reflection to get us started today. It’s found in a book by Pastor Mark Brazee entitled, “Processing the Plan of God Through Prayer.” Which is, in my mind, one of the classic books on prayer. And he writes, “Prayer touches every area of our lives. It’s like throwing a rock into a pond. The ripples go out and reach every shore. Developing our prayer life is essential. The more we pray, particularly in the Holy Ghost or in other tongues, the more sensitive we will become to the plan of God on the earth. God longs to bring His will to pass in the earth and in us individually. He desires to have communion and fellowship and do business with us, His creation.” Pastor Mark goes on to say, “Developing our own prayer life makes prayer personal and causes things in our lives to be in order.”
Cultivating your prayer life…
I love that. I have to say, I’ve had that experience down through the years. How prayer, just something about cultivating your prayer life, devoting yourself to prayer, staying in there with prayer through the days, the weeks, the months, and the years. It’s just something about that, that just brings change to your life, causes things to fall off that were maybe perennially a problem. There’s something about prayer that just turns up the spiritual fire in your heart and causes things to become really clear as far as God’s plan and purpose and priorities.
Prayer makes things in our lives to be in order…
But he goes on to say, “Developing your own prayer life makes prayer personal and causes things in our lives to be in order. Jesus said, ‘Pray lest you enter temptation’ in Mark 14:38. A prayer life will help our spirit grow stronger than our flesh and help keep us out of many temptations and problems that we face in life. The more we walk in the spirit, the more we will be able to not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.” I would add to that the will or the mandates of the Spirit.
He goes on to say, “James said by the Holy Ghost, ‘Is any among you afflicted,’ meaning tempted, tested, tried, or having a difficult time. James said ‘Is anybody going through a hard time? Let him or let her pray.’ James 5:13. A strong prayer life will help keep us out of afflictions and show us how to deal with them and come out victoriously.”
God knows the way forward…
Something just resonating in my spirit recently is that God knows the way forward. He knows how to get done, what needs to be done. And there’s a reason why Jesus before He is ascended back to His Father gave a mission or a mandate to the church. But He also told them as a prerequisite, ‘Go wait for the promise of the Holy Spirit.’”
First “receive” and then “go do”…
In other words, they were supposed to go do something, but first they were supposed to receive something before they were to go do something. And I believe that was not to be a one-time event, but to be a precedent and a pattern we’re to follow. To receive something… daily, even moment by moment before we go do something. We’re not human doings. We’re human beings. And we’re to be with God. That’s our high ministry and our most important duty on a daily basis is to simply be with Him.
A prayer life will change us…
He goes on to write, A prayer life will change us. That’s why James said ‘Is any among you afflicted? Let him or let her pray.’ Afflicted does not mean sick. James was giving instruction to James and not to those who were sick. He said afflicted means to suffer trials, tests, or tribulations. James didn’t say, ‘Is any among you afflicted? Let him go to eight hours of counseling.’ Thank God for counseling if it’s according to the Bible. James didn’t say, ‘Is any among you afflicted, let him call the prayer line.’ And have someone else do his praying or her praying for them. No. James said for you to pray yourself.”
We need to “level up” in our spiritual skillfulness…
And just a reminder, as we go through the coming days as leaders, as staff, as pray-ers, as believers, it will be increasingly critical that we level up in our spiritual skillfulness, in our cooperation with our Heavenly Father. Amen? In our daily walk, in our personal lives, we need Him. Amen. He wants to take us where we have not gone before. But to do that will require a relationship that we’ve not had before.
Jesus called us sheep…
I thought this was interesting; somebody shared recently that they were just reminding us that Jesus called us sheep. And sheep aren’t real smart or real bright. They don’t see well, first of all. They don’t have good sight. But they do have good ears. And you probably all know that Jesus said we are all sheep. And He said, “My sheep know My voice and listen to Me,” which is perhaps one of the most important aspects to pray-ers is to sink deep into your heart and listen.
We don’t walk by sight…
I thought it was also interesting that the Bible says we don’t walk by sight. We were to walk by faith. How does faith come? By listening. By hearing. So faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
Prayer is seeing the Father’s heart…
Bill Johnson said recently, “Prayer is not supposed to be us begging God to invade a situation. Instead, it should be us joining with the Father, seeing His heart.” Listening, in other words, for what He’s saying. And making decrees to bring about His will on the earth.
Kenneth Hagin, “Build your prayer life first…”
Can you stand if I read one more thing here? This is from brother Kenneth Hagin from a number of years ago. He said this, speaking about our prayer lives, “Remember this: that your ministry will never be powerful, it’ll never, speaking from a human standpoint, get off the ground unless it’s backed up with prayer. So build your prayer life first. Build your prayer life upon the Word. Build your prayer life… wait upon Me, saith the Lord, and you’ll renew your strength. Yes, you’ll run and you’ll not be weary. You’ll walk and you’ll not faint. Yes, only a ministry that’s built upon prayer will be effective in these last days.”
“And then some will say, ‘Well, the Word will do it. We’ll just let the Word do it.’ But the Word will never be effective as it should be if that or the one who delivers that Word is not backed up with a prayer life. So let the prayer life come first. Let the ministry of prayer be first. And you’ll be commended because you’re zealous of spiritual gifts.”
We’re to live from a place of holy fire…
And he goes on and talks about spiritual gifts and how they reach their highest potential from a place of prayer. In fact, I’m a believer and I see it in the Word that we’re to live from a place of fire. A place of holy fire. That we’re to wait like Jesus taught us, commanded us to receive something, to be in something… in His fire, in His presence, and then go forth from that place. We’re not to live or try to obtain something. We’re to live from something.
Pastor Lynne has taught us through the years that you’ve not only been redeemed from something, you’ve been redeemed to something. And that something is to host or live a lifestyle of His presence… hosting His presence. And then doing what we do is practical and mundane and routine as that might be from that place, that place of holy fire, that place of presence, that place of Pentecost. We need Pentecost! That wasn’t to be a one-time event. Maybe it is a historical one-time event, but Jesus intended it for it to be a daily experience that inspires us, that informs us, that propels us, that makes us wise beyond our natural intellect.
Brother Hagin finishes by saying…
“So build a life of prayer. Yes, but put prayer first and by doing so, the Word. Other things, ministry, vocal gifts, singing ministry, gifts in the spirit, and the operations in the spirit will come in their rightful place.” In other words, when prayer has its rightful place in our lives, all the other things tend to fall in place.
“And because your spirit has times of fellowship with the Father and enough fellowship to become keen, then you’ll understand the move of the Spirit.” Or you could say what the mind of the Spirit is. What He would have us to do to the decisions He wants us to make today. The direction He would have us to go… what we’re to say, how we’re to function.
He goes on and says…
“Because your spirit has had time of fellowship with the Father and enough fellowship to become keen, then you’ll understand the move of the Spirit. And then automatically, you’ll move with the Spirit and you’ll not come to a place where you’d say, ‘Well, I don’t know what to do now. What should I do now?’ Because your spirit is in tune with heaven. And you’ll know heaven’s desires and heaven’s plan.” That would be good, wouldn’t it?
“And so you will enjoy heaven upon the earth. So begin now. Begin now to build a life of prayer, to build a ministry of prayer, to give yourself unto the Spirit. For the Spirit would seek those whom He could use, through whom He can voice His desires, the desires of the Father speaking out the will of God to be done within the earth. And so you’ll be glad that you did. You’ll be glad that you did.”
That’s a good word, right?
