Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Pastor Ken…
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to those of you joining us online. Great to have you with us.
The Lord gives us permission to yield to Him…
I encourage you and give you permission to open your heart and let the Holy Spirit stream into your soul this morning and refresh you. The Lord gives us permission to simply yield to Him, to simply just absorb Him. That’s what the message of redemption is, a big part of it, that God made a way that we might be absorbed by the Spirit of the living God and receive all the benefits and all the attributes of the third person of the Godhead that He brings. And that includes refreshing, and wisdom, and recreation on the inside where we need it. The Lord desires to renew and recreate us from the inside out.
And so I just pray that the Lord would just breathe… in our natural lungs, so too, let’s just expect to breathe in the atmosphere of heaven this morning… The atmosphere of the Spirit of God. He’s here to meet with us. Amen? We’re not here to do life alone or to struggle through and get by until Jesus returns. We’re here to rise and thrive. And if I can use this word, it might rhyme and be imbibed by the Spirit of God. Be imbibed. I like that.
And so, Father, we just thank you this morning that there is something greater, there is something higher, there is something fresh and new that you intend to do right here in this moment of history, this time, this space, this gathering. And so we just give you permission, Lord, to do that in our hearts individually, do that in us as a collective, do that today that you desire.
Holy Spirit, we turn the reins over to you and we invite you to breathe on us, resuscitate us, cause things to come alive in us, cause things to be brought in order, that order would come out of chaos, that organization would be set in motion in our thoughts, in our hearts, in our callings, in our homes, in our churches, Lord. We just invite angels to be in attendance. We invite your Holy Spirit to set some fresh things in motion this morning that we would abandon our way, that we would abandon some religious way and that we would choose your way, Father, the way of and by the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the consummate catalyst to the work of God…
I was just thinking about the Holy Spirit and how He’s the consummate catalyst to the work of God. And maybe it’s just me, but I just have always been curious and captivated by the God the Holy Spirit, with the understanding that He isn’t just some crazy uncle of the Trinity, but that He’s the third person of the Godhead. Coequal with God the Son, and God the Father. And He’s the one that Jesus seemed intent on getting to us. And part of the work He did was that we would be imbibed by Him. Amen. Propelled by Him, animated by Him, controlled by Him. It is the great key necessary for life and leadership and ministry.
The Lord wants to stir in our hearts a hunger and desire…
And I just feel like for some of us this morning, the Lord wants to just stir in your heart a hunger and a desire to cultivate an intimate and personal relationship with God, the Holy Spirit. Because He is going to be the key and the one who will precipitate what God has for you in the days ahead… in your calling, your leadership, your family, your next steps. The difference maker, the game changer, is God the Holy Spirit. Amen. And we live in a moment of history where God is wanting to have the church have all eyes on Jesus. He’s wanting to return us to the fullness like was experienced in the first century church. That we would experience demonstration of God the Holy Spirit, like the first century church, and even more. Because it’s prophesied that we’re to witness the former and the latter rains coming together.
And so the Holy Spirit wants to come into our lives and demonstrate some things with power. He wants to give you and I answers. Change what needs to be changed. And coach you into a new level of purpose and victory. Unprecedented times call for unprecedented levels of God the Holy Spirit in our lives. This present moment of history requires that we possess a degree of God’s presence equal to and greater than the demands of our calling and adversities that we face.
Being captivated by the person of the Holy Ghost…
I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, but from my youngest days as a child and a young person before I even got a hold of the teaching of the Word of faith, I was captivated by the Holy Spirit. I found out that I could talk to Him and He would talk back to me. He would listen to me and talk back to me. I found out that His power would course over my being and minister to every faculty of my nature.
And as I got older, I found that He had things prepared. He already had a plan, a perfect plan. And He had the ability to prepare me and prepare you. And propel us forward into fullness… into destiny… into a plan that He had collaborated together with the Trinity and wrote in a book according to Psalms 31:139. So right there, some of us can just exhale to realize that God has a plan for our departments today, has a plan for Living Word today, has a plan for your household, your finances, that situation that’s been dogging you and the enemy maybe has been harassing us in some way about it. God has a plan. We can exhale and draw a fresh breath of awareness that we can trust in His faithfulness and His goodness and that He’s even factored failure into our future. And guess what? It turns out alright. That’s why Jesus is smiling as He looks down on us today. He’s smiling from the inside of us.
I jotted this down last night as I was praying…
I feel like it’s something the Lord’s kind of prompting us in, and that is it’s time to take our spiritual self-leadership to the next level. Pastor Mac said something to the pastors yesterday. He reminded us that the chiefest among you will be the servant of all. And I couldn’t help but be reminded that the first way we serve is by turning ourselves into God. And allowing ourselves to be absorbed into His presence. Allowing ourselves to be filled with God the Holy Spirit. Allowing ourselves to become acquainted and intimate with Him and His ways and His Word and who He is and what He wants to do.
The first way to be a leader is to sit with Him and let Him talk to you. And even speak to you and speak to us as to how we should be praying and what we should be saying and the decisions we must be making now, the preparations that must be done as a church, as individual departments, as individual households and families.
I don’t mean to preach, but I do sense that as Pastor Mac was sharing yesterday, that God is calling us to a new level. We must take our spiritual self-leadership to the next level.
Prayer is your transportation…
Because one thing I’ve learned, maybe from Pastor Lynne and by my own experience is that prayer is your transportation. In fact, I came across this really great quote by another leader and pray-er and minister. They said, “It does not matter how smart, well intentioned or competent we are because our knowledge, skills, and talents are simply not enough for the task of leading others spiritually. That role is just too big for us to handle without continual prayer.”
Oswald Chambers…
I think it was Oswald Chambers that said, “Prayer isn’t what prepares you for the greater work. Prayer is the greater work.” And its intimacy and being perpetually captivated and curious about God the Holy Spirit, and always being inward focused on what He’s doing inside of us. So that we can give Him permission not only to do, but to flow and go where He’s taking us. It’s that that will animate the plan of God and bring about what God wants to bring about in this hour and time.
Putting the Holy Spirit on full display…
He intends for the Holy Spirit to be put on full display through us as leaders, as individual followers of Jesus, as pray-ers. We’re not here to look to self. We’re here to look to Holy Spirit. And let Him have His way so that He could be put on display. That’s why Paul said, “I rejoice when I’m weak, because when I’m weak, I then enable the Lord to be strong in and through me.” I get excited when I feel weak and incapable because it’s like, okay, well this is an opportunity for the Lord to truly show Himself strong for true heavenly wisdom to flow through me, for divine utterance to flow through me because I’m small in my own eyes, but He is also big in my eyes. It’s not by might, it’s not by power, but it shall be and it will be by His Spirit. That must be our mantra in this hour.
Kenneth E. Hagin…
Brother Kenneth Hagin wrote these words many years ago. He said, “When you discuss the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ, most people immediately respond, ‘Well, yes, but He was the Son of God.’” And of course, He was. But what they failed to realize is that He as the Son of God was one thing, He as a person ministering was another thing. He did not minister as the Son of God. He ministered as a mere man anointed by the Holy Spirit.
Being filled was not to be a one-time thing…
In fact, let me just pause here and read a passage of Scripture I was thinking about. We see it was written of Jesus in Luke 24:49. Jesus says, “Behold, I send the promise of My Father upon you, but tarry or wait in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.” And it occurred to me, that wasn’t meant to be a one-time thing. That was a pattern He was setting in motion to the church that we would perpetually practice the spiritual habit of waiting until we receive power and wisdom and creativity and solutions and what is needed to do what He’s called us to do. To not strike out on our own as leaders, as individuals, as pray-ers, but to be more passionate than ever before in this hour to be endued with power on high before we go and exercise influence or do what we do. That’s what God intended. That was His original design and pattern. Just bearing witness with anybody in this house this morning, anybody online this morning. Is it just me?
Brother Hagin goes on to say…
“Oh, how real He is…” The Holy Spirit that is. “If people would start developing that consciousness of the indwelling Spirit, when they first become Christians, He would manifest Himself. But too often they haven’t been taught correctly. They thought they got an experience. They kept trying to have another experience like the one they had, but it wasn’t an experience at all. It was someone, a divine personality who came to live in them. He is a heavenly being, the Holy Spirit. I’m convinced that the more we yield to the Spirit of God and are taken over by Him, the more results we would see.”
We could stop there and go home and like, “Selah” on that for the rest of today and the week.
“God wants to raise up a mighty spiritual army in these days equipped with His power and His Spirit that He can place His anointing upon.”
John Osteen…
Let me read one more excerpt from the late now in heaven, John Osteen, who had a pretty remarkable ministry in his time. And now to see what his son has done to take the ministry to a whole other dimensionality. It’s really something. And he knew something about the Holy Spirit. In fact, he wrote one time, “The Holy Ghost is the executive power of God. God the Father did His job in planning salvation. Jesus came down and completed His redemptive work. He has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. This is the age of the Holy Ghost.”
Do we need to be reminded of that this morning? Not Ken Olson! Or any other particular person or you or me, but the age of the Holy Spirit, that means that God wants the Holy Spirit to be the most prominent and preeminent facet and characteristic of the church and of a staff and of a household and of our individual lives. If we’re going to take our self-leadership to the next level, then the Holy Spirit needs to be seen in clear view and have a place of preeminence in our thoughts and in our daily planning. Where we give Him permission, where we pursue yieldedness to Him.
If there’s one thing Pastor Lynne has taught us, that’s it. Follow the Holy Spirit.
Kenneth E. Hagin…
Brother Hagin once said, “If you can teach people to follow the Holy Spirit, you can help them in every area of life.” Because God has a plan. He has provision. That’s easy. It’s us bending our will away from what we want and from our lower nature to what He wants and who He is. Let me finish.
John Osteen goes on to say…
“I do not know anybody in our day that is living, raising a family, or trying to serve God that doesn’t need the ability, efficiency, and might of the Holy Spirit. When you get the baptism in the Holy Ghost, you touch a realm you’ve never touched before. Even in your deepest dedication, it is a dimension where the gifts of the Holy Ghost operate.”
I like to say when you pray, the switch of the Holy Spirit is turned on and things planted in you by God come alive. And I believe planted in others around you, if you’re a leader or a parent, a grandparent come alive. There are latent things in us, even as a church and as individuals, that we don’t even realize are there. There’s a new thing God wants to do, and the only way they come alive is by the water of the Holy Spirit. When we flip the switch in prayer and attention on Him.
John Osteen goes on to say…
“It is the realm of the supernatural. You begin to live in the same Holy Ghost charged atmosphere as those in the book of Acts. You must realize that you are not prepared to touch the world effectively until you are clothed with power from on high. That clothing comes in the baptism of the Holy Ghost.”
And can I just add, it was never meant to be a one-time event, the baptism. The authors of the New Testament go on to say, “be being filled,” being perpetually filled, right? Speaking out in Psalms and hymns and spiritual sayings. That ought to be our great focus and great work before anything else.
Remember that the Holy Ghost is in us to bring about a demonstration. He is eager and jealous for Jesus to be glorified. He is zealous to perform this demonstration. He will rise quickly to come to the aid of every believer to demonstrate to the world that Jesus has completely conquered Satan and every demonic force. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus. And He brings the spirit of victory, the conquering spirit. It rises in you when you give Him a place of preeminence and relationship in your life.
