Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Pastor Ken…
Happy Wednesday, everyone. Good to see you all. Welcome to prayer. My name is Ken. We’re going to pray today. Can we do that?
This morning I thought I would read a passage found in Jeremiah 33:3. I’m going to read it from a couple different translations.
Jeremiah 33:3, New King James says…
“Call to me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things which you do not know.”
Amplified Classic Bible says…
“Call to Me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things, fenced in and hidden, which you do not know (do not distinguish and recognize, have knowledge of and understand).”
God challenges us to be a people who are prolific in asking…
In other words, there are things that we can access, we can’t know except through prayer. And I just sense in my heart that God is challenging us today to be a people who are really prolific in asking. Jesus implores us, “Ask that you may receive, that your joy may be full.”
In Matthew 7, it shows us that we’re to ask, to seek, and to knock, and that there are hidden things that are reserved for those who will make the choice to do just that: to ask, to petition, to pray the prayer of faith, to boldly step out into a place of uncomfortableness in your flesh and in your mind and begin to declare a thing, that it might be established, that it might be accomplished, that faith might be released and God would perform that which we pray for, that which we petition, that which we ask for.
Excerpt from E.M. Bounds book, “The Best of E.M. Bounds on Prayer”
And now let me add to that something, again, I read Monday just a little bit from E.M. Bounds’ book “The Best of E.M. Bounds on Prayer.” And I’m going to continue with a couple of excerpts that talk about this a little bit. And then we’ll jump into some prayer.
God’s plans hinge on prayer…
In this one particular chapter where he’s talking about the purpose of prayer, he said, “God conditions the very life and prosperity of His cause,” or you could say His plan, “on prayer.” In other words, the condition that sets His plan up for fulfillment and accomplishment and fruitfulness in your life and my life, in the church at large, all hinges on prayer.
Prayer puts God in full force in this world…
There’s something about a single kneeling figure, as somebody once said, that gives heaven permission to perform God’s plan in the earth. And E.M. Bounds writes, “God conditions the very life and prosperity of His cause on prayer. The condition was put in the very existence of God’s cause in this world. ‘Ask of me’ is the one condition God puts in the very advance and triumph of His cause,” or you could say His purpose. “Men and women are to pray for the advance of God’s cause. Prayer puts God in full force in this world. To a powerful man or woman, God is present in realized force. To a prayerful church, God is present in glorious power.”
In this other section, he says…
“‘Ask of me’ is the condition. A praying people willing and obedient, ‘And men shall pray for Him continually.’ Under this universal and simple promise, men and women of old laid themselves out before God. They prayed and God answered their prayers. And the cause,” or you could say the plan of God, “was kept” or performed “in the world by the flame of their praying.
“Prayer became a settled and only condition to move His Son’s kingdom. ‘Ask and it shall be given you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you,’ Matthew 7:7. The strongest one in Christ’s kingdom is he who is the best knocker. The secret of success in Christ’s kingdom is the ability to pray. The one who can wield the power of prayer is the strong one and the holy one in Christ’s kingdom. The most important lesson we can learn is how to pray.”
Can I get an amen? It’s still Wednesday, isn’t it? All right, I’m going to jump over to one more section here.
He writes…
“The story of every great Christian achievement is the history of answered prayer.” You want to do something great? You want to see the tide of what’s going on in our nation turned fully? You want to see darkness and false ideologies, including Islam, turned back? The wake-up call has gone out. All of us are privy to it. All of us have ears to hear. Whether we’re online or in this chapel, it’s time for us to hear fully. And give ourselves to Him, yield ourselves to Him. Not be all worked up because of what we’re seeing on an Instagram Reel or reported on the nightly news. Does anybody still watch the nightly news? Maybe a few.
No, our guidance is internal, and that is of the Holy Spirit, and He has sent us here on mission. We’re not just passing through time and space. We’re not just biding our time until retirement day or something. Or maybe you’re already there. God bless you. We’re here to be guided by His hand in this most sacred and holy calling of prayer. For not just our personal lives, but for the greater things that are unfolding around us in our nation and in the world.
E.M. Bounds states…
“The greatest and best talent that God gives to any man or woman in this world is the talent of prayer…” That’s interesting. “…writes Principal Alexander White. And the best usury that a man or a woman brings back to God,” or you could say interest or results “when he comes to reckon…” In other words, when He comes to reckon “at the end of this world is the life of prayer.”
In other words, the best thing you have to offer is your fruitfulness in prayer.
“We see that in scripture that prayer produces the fruit of God’s plan and power. I like to say that, in fact, prayer assigns, delegates, and releases the power of God.”
That would be a good place to say amen.
There’s much more at our disposal than we recognize. But the more we pray, the more we yield ourselves to Him, the more our eyes will see, our ears will hear, and we will function in, we will work with in the days ahead. This day that we’re entering into, this new season, this new era, is one that will require a supernatural flow. In other words, what got you to where you are today is not what’s going to get you to where you need to go tomorrow. What’s going to be required of the church, and is already, whether we realize it or not, and required of us individually is a supernatural flow, is the full functioning of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, not just through a minister who stands in a pulpit, but through each and every one of us.
The more you yield to prayer, the more you yield to the gifts of the Holy Spirit…
Because on the spirit of prayer, on the flow of prayer is attached or right on top of it are the giftings of the Holy Spirit. You’ll notice sometimes when I’m praying, just interpreting my prayer language and my understanding or in English, oftentimes I’ll shift over and start to prophesy and just declare a thing because the same spirit of prayer is the spirit of prophecy. It’s the spirit of the future. And the more you yield to prayer, the more you yield to the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the power of God to function in you and through you.
We want that in our churches. We need that in our politicians now. We need that in moms and dads and in students and in all people that are called by His name. We must have the dynamic and supernatural aspect of who He said He would be in this world through the Holy Spirit abiding in us.
The fire and power of God is the antidote to evil…
The wave of evil that is coursing across the globe has an antidote, has something that is able to overcome it, and that is the fire and the power of God resident and flowing through the lives of those who are called by His name. No matter what state or what place we’re assigned, whether it’s in the marketplace or in the ministry or as a mom or a dad or a teacher, whatever the case is, God’s intent always was that we would walk in the fullness of God the Holy Spirit.
The book of Acts was to be extended…
What we saw in the book of Acts in the first century church, that was to be expected throughout the life of the church to this very day. Where prison cell doors flung open and angels showed up personally to set people free. Where bodies were made whole in an instant. Where demonic entities were driven out of people who had been bound for decades and maybe their whole lives. At the spoken Word of God, evil fled. Cities were turned upside down in a good way for the cause and name of Jesus Christ.
God wants to flow through us daily…
We hold the answers. We possess the greater One within us. He’s for us. In us. And now He wants to flow through us in fullness in this day and hour, not just in one random church service 10 years ago—but daily! Daily. Moment by moment as we go through our days, your words of prayer matter. Your faith decrees can and will move mountains.
Do you believe that?
There’s no turning back. Don’t even give yourself the luxury to entertain turning back or settling into a place that’s comfortable and convenient. No, we have not come this far to settle. You’ve not come to this point to just kind of relax and coast and mail it in, so to speak, spiritually.
No, we’re going the distance as the body of Christ. We’re going the distance as His sons and daughters. We’re going to wrap up this age in a flourishing finish.
I was reading some of the best works of E.M. Bounds, who said…
“The story of every great Christian achievement is the history of answered prayer. The greatest and best talent that God gives to a man or woman in this world is the talent of prayer. And the best usury that any man or woman brings back to God when He comes to reckon with them at the end of this world…” In other words, we all have to give an account for our lives at some point… “is the best thing we can offer is a life. Lord, I lived my life in prayer. Yes, there’s obedience, and yes, there’s things we must do naturally, but the tip of the spear where it all begins, where it all unfolds, where we apprehend the reason God apprehended us starts in relationship with Him.
The effortless, organic outflow of prayer produces the plan of God—in your life, in mine, and in this world. He says, “And those servants best put their Lord’s money to the exchangers who rise early and sit late as long as they are in this world, ever finding out and ever following after better and better methods of prayer, and ever forming more secret, more steadfast, more spiritually fruitful habits of prayer till they,” that’s us, “literally pray without ceasing. And until they continually strike out into new enterprises in prayer,” in other words, new prayer assignments, “and new achievements and new enrichments.”
We’ve only scratched the surface in prayer…
You may have prayed much of your life or for the last 10 years, whatever the case might be, but you and I have only scratched the surface of what is possible, what is available, what God desires for us to know and see and bring about. We’re in a divine partnership now. And God wants to bring about through you and through me the glorious works of His Father, the glorious works of the Holy Spirit.
Martin Luther said…
Martin Luther once asked what his plans for the following day were. In other words, the Martin Luther who began the Reformation in the Middle Ages. He answered, “Work. Work from early until late. In fact, I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.” Now, that’s no condemnation, right? Maybe not all of us are there. But we can pray, we can acknowledge Him for five minutes and start there.
