Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Pastor Folu…
Good morning, everybody. Welcome to morning prayer.
The benefits of praise and worship…
I want to read some of the benefits of praise and worship. It invites the presence of God and all of us can sense and feel that wonderful presence. Right from the get go from when our brothers began, even when I walked in here when they were rehearsing, that presence was already waiting… waiting for us! It invites the presence of God. It brings victory.
Oh, saints, if people would know the importance of worshiping and praising our great God… Have you been looking for victory? Have you even been believing for victory? It’s in Him and it shows up in praise and worship. Victory! It brings deliverance from enemies.
Psalms 18:3…
“I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised; so shall I be saved from my enemies.”
Praise and worship, saints, it satisfies the soul. No wonder the enemy makes it so that so many people don’t get to church on time for praise and worship. They slide in before the message itself. People allow themselves to be shortchanged. Their souls are not satisfied. But you can sense the satisfaction of our soul in this place.
Praise and worship dispels depression…
I’ll share one more. And this is a big one. It repels depression. It repels it. And so many people are dealing with depression today. If they would just get into the presence of God and allow themselves to be taken. Not just be there, but just allowed the presence of God to take them to a whole new dimension. For those of us that are here this morning and those of you that are watching online, as our brothers continue in the next few seconds, if you’ll just give yourself over… If you want to move into the aisle, come to the front. Just go into places you’ve never been before in your worship, and those of you that are maybe dealing with some form of depression of some kind, you will see that by the time we’re done, you’ll say, “Where is it?”
And some of you might have been dealing with this depression for years. But because you just let yourself, you let the Holy Spirit engulf your spirit, your soul, and your body. You let Him have His way and that depression is just repelled. And not just is it repelled for a season, it’s repelled for your lifetime. Praise and worship! Hallelujah!
Isaiah 61:3…
“To console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning,
the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.” Hallelujah!
Saints, one of the wonderful and beautiful things about times like this is that the desire of the Father is to fellowship with us. That was the intent from the very beginning. And this kind of moment creates that opportunity to fellowship with our Maker… for us just to sit in His presence and let Him fill us to overflowing.
Praise and worship brings liberty…
We’re talking about the benefits of praise and worship. Another one is that it brings liberty.
Acts 16, “But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed.”
But at midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and … Suddenly. Hmmm. Saints, are you ready for a suddenly? Praise and worship positions you and I for the “suddenlies” of heaven. Suddenlies that will propel or catapult you to a whole new level in God. The suddenlies. As you can see from this story, they were worshiping. They were praising God. And God says, “Look, look, look at this.”
Saints, there’s a lesson for us to learn in this, right here. Or a lesson to be reminded of that when things are challenging for us to come into praise and worship. Not run from it, but to actually come into that place.
Suddenly there was a great… not just an earthquake. A great one! So that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed. Praise and worship.
Praise and worship brings joy…
And then we’ll continue in this wonderful fellowship that we’re having with our great God, allowing Him to speak to our very being. Imagine allowing Him to really go deep, because deep is calling to deep in these last days. How about this one?
It brings joy. Oh my dear brother, my dear sister, what is your joy level at right now? Where are you? On a scale of zero to 10, where is it? Because that is so important in these last days, for that joy level to be at the very top.
Psalm 100:4, “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.”
This kind of time when we’re just sitting in His presence… it’s a form of prayer, because His ministry into your innermost being and you are speaking. Even though you might not be necessarily voicing it, you’re speaking from the very depths of your being and He’s able to hear what you’re saying even in your heart. Because your heart speaks… brings joy.
Psalm 16:10…
“You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
Pleasures forevermore. So my dear brothers and sisters, I just implore you, if your joy meter is at the lower end of the spectrum, let yourself get into His presence. Let yourself worship Him because some of us, by the time this prayer meeting is over, you would say, “What was the trouble? What was it that I was so concerned about?” Because in His presence, in that time of you fellowshipping with Him, just like…
Happiness Survey at the State Fair testimony…
I’ll share a quick testimony about what the Lord has done for a number of us in this room over the last 12 days. See this presence, it creates an atmosphere where you can begin to create things, where the holy one can begin to download things into your spirit and then you can go ahead and release it. And it blesses humanity.
My wife and I and others in the room… there was a total of 12 of us. We had the wonderful privilege of doing an event very close to the State Fair. We were there 10 out of the 12 days. And what the Lord did! He gave us this strategy, something brand new from Heaven. It was called “The Happiness Survey.” And God connected us. There’s a pastor of a church that I’m connected with… and Living Word was able to partner up with this church. And they were at a premium location, very close to the fairgrounds. It was so premium that people that were parking in that area were paying $40 and $50 to park. That’s how close. People were going and coming from the fair. And so they saw this huge sign that says, “Happiness Survey.” Something fresh, something new.
He gave it to us just before the fair started. And people were coming. They were like, “What is this Happiness Survey? What do I do?” And then as we engaged people, and as you know, it doesn’t take much for the Spirit of God to come. As we started praying with them, people just started tearing up. They’re like, “Oh, thank you so much for your kindness. Thank you.”
The Lord gave us the privilege of engaging with close to 600 people out of the 10 days that we were there. It was heavenly, just to be able to touch humanity and bless the people of God and so many salvations resulted.
There was even a gentleman that showed up on Monday, a contemporary of our senior pastor. He just happened to end up at the table and I told him what church I attend. He said, “Oh, Mac Hammond?” I said, yes. He said, “Is your pastor still flying?” He said “We started in ministry about the same time together.” The Lord just brought all kinds of people.
It was just amazing what the Lord did. And it’s out of presence like this. There’s a whole lot more, but I’ll just leave it there so that we can just go back into this place of just worshiping. And for some of you, it’s just being, sitting down. Let Him love on you. Just let Him speak to your heart. Let Him show you things to come that no one has ever seen, something that has never entered humanity, something fresh from heaven that will change the world. Revolutionary stuff. Hallelujah!
