Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Pastor Ken…
Today, I have a really simple thought maybe to open up with in just a few reflections before we pray. I think maybe the one that just kind of hit me, and I don’t mean to insult anybody’s intelligence. Maybe if I can just be real. I still am on my prayer journey, as far as what it looks like and it’s evolving and changing and ever growing. But it just kind of hit me, James 5:13, which says, “Is any afflicted or going through a tough time, facing challenges, let him or let her pray.” And it just kind of hit me this morning of just the importance of prayer in our individual daily lives. It’s great that we come together as a collective online and in person to pray, but there’s just something so important and so understated about the necessity and the need in our daily journey and lives to be given to prayer, to give ourselves to prayer.
Good things come forth from a determination to pray…
From choosing to pray, praying in your understanding, praying through worship, praying in the spirit. So many things will fall into place in our lives, simply by being devoted to prayer. Not necessarily just seeking God’s hand but seeking Him. Because He is God, right? Seeking His heart. He’s good, He’s gracious, He’s kind… seeking to know Him.
This is eternal life, that you might know Him…
What did Jesus declare in the gospels? “This is eternal life.” You can sum everything up to “this is eternal life, that you might know Him.” That would be the Father. And it’s in knowing and seeking Him and being a person who’s determined and dogged, if you will, in our daily life to pray. It’s in that, that not only causes us to know and grow in Him, but also causes so many things in our lives to fall into place. So many good things to transpire to happen.
So I just want to encourage you this morning…
Even though we pray a lot together, and I’ll declare things over us as an online prayer movement family, and God’s moving through that. there are just so many channels and avenues that God moves and works and does what He does, brings breakthrough, brings hope, brings help. First and foremost, He’s called each of us individually to seek Him through prayer, to give ourselves to Him in prayer.
Isaiah 64…
And I wanted to also just kind of read to you Isaiah 64 this morning, starting at verse one from the New King James. It says, “Oh, that you would rend the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains would shake at your presence as fire burns brushwood as fire causes water to boil, to make your name known to your adversaries that the nations may tremble at your presence. When you did awesome things for which we did not look, you came down. The mountain shook at your presence. Since the beginning of the world, men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, nor has eye seen any God besides you. Who acts for the one who waits for Him.”
“I like that…”
One translation says He works for those who wait for Him. I like to point that out and kind of recalibrate myself to that often because it’s counterintuitive to our culture and our American way, which says you got to strike out on your own. You got to make your own way. You got to do it yourself, right? We’re Christians, especially, it’s sad to say we’ve become very good “do it yourselfers,” spiritually speaking. And the Lord often in scripture reminds us that He wants to live from a place that He’s prepared for us, a secret place, a place of relationship, a place of victory, a place of fullness.
He wants us to live from a place… do life, do ministry, do our calling from a place. And that place essentially can be summed up as to “know Him.” So He acts for those who wait for Him. He works for those who wait for Him. Isaiah 64:5 says, “You meet him or her who rejoices and does righteousness.” I like that. He meets those who rejoice, who worship, who celebrate Him, who remembers you in your ways.
Now, let me read something to you here that was shared here in morning prayer back in March 13. And thanks to Sue, she transcribed it for me. I have a record of it and I just want to read this just to inspire you this morning.
You are on your way…
The Lord, under the Spirit of God under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit said, you are on your way. Keep taking steps. You’re on your way. Yes, it’s a new day. Victory has come. The answer has been sent. Stir up your heart and be receptive. Remind yourself of what the Spirit of God has said, what His Word has declared. Take hold of that. Hold firmly to it. Keep your grasp on the prize. Jesus would say that would be the Word. He and His Word are one. Yes, for it’s going to be worth it.
It’s going to be worth it…
That’s an encouraging word for somebody here this morning. It’s going to be worth it. All of it. All that you’ve been through, all that you’ve faced, all the patience, the monotony of what you’ve been through. Maybe in some ways the trauma, it’s going to be worth it. We just get up today and say, “Lord, have your way.” We turn ourselves over to Him knowing that He’s perpetually in the business of redemption, redeeming all that we’ve been through so that it is worth it in the end. Yes for it’s going to be worth it. Do not relent. In other words, do not stop. Do not quit. Don’t withdraw. Don’t grow weary. Oh, the enemy can take his best shot, but it will always fall short of what God has already sent and what He’s already said. Today know that it’s going to be worth it all. Not just because of the answer to your prayer, not because of the dream that’s fulfilled that you have in your heart, or because the healing you receive.
But Jesus would say, I am worth it. At the end of the day, that’s what we recalibrate to. We were created to find connection and relationship with Him. But Jesus would say, “I am worth it.” It’s all going to be worth it because Jesus is worth it. He is worth it. So keep taking steps. You’re on your way. Don’t look to the right. Don’t look to the left. Look straight on, onward and upward to the glory of God for it’s shining on you.
Can I just declare that over you today?
You are, as I’ve often said, the lit-up ones. Jesus did what He did so that you would be made righteous and holy and acceptable and prepared in every way. From God’s perspective for the very glory, the Shekinah glory of God to come and tabernacle on the inside of us so that we would be able to be called the lit-up ones. And maybe it’s not apparent in this natural arena, but if we could pull back the veil between the natural and the spiritual, and you could see in the spiritual realm, you could see from a demonic entity that’s been harassing you from his or whatever perspective, you would be lit up. You’d be a bright and shining one. You would be one who has someone standing behind you and His name would be Jesus and have the visage of the Son of God.
That’s why you not only read accounts in scripture, but also hear accounts from missionaries in modern times who were maybe among the headhunters years ago in New Guinea. And I remember too, a story of two missionaries who they were going to die, basically. And they were in this tent. And while they’re in this tent for hours, there was this great ceremony going on among this tribe in the far Pacific. And they were headhunting tribe. They were known as that, one of the last unreached tribes. This was like in the early 20th century. And when they came out of this tent, after the ceremony was complete and they were going to die, essentially, be sacrificed. When they stepped out of the tent, this whole community of people basically bit the dust and bowed before these two missionaries. And as they did, they just were shocked. Missionaries were shocked.
And anyway, through some loose translation, they found out that there was some bright and shining large beings standing beside these two missionaries when they stepped outside the tent. That’s what these indigenous people to this island witnessed. Those were angels. That was the Son of God. They were the lit-up ones.
You are lit up on the inside…
The glory of God is shining on you. Wherever you go today, whatever you do today in the spirit dimension around us, let’s be mindful that we’re the ones that hold the victory. We’re the ones that possess the right to the use of the name of Jesus. We’re the ones that Jesus delegated authority to. He’s given us the right to use that authority, to put the enemy on the run, to exercise our divine privileges according to the scriptures. Let me finish reading this though.
And there have been many stories like that. Have you ever seen on the Internet? I mean, I can’t vet it. I have not vetted it or proved it or anything, but there’s a number of pictures, but there’s one in particular that’s been around for years of a car that’s totally demolished and one of the first responders took a picture of this; it was completely demolished on the hood or where the hood used to be, is this bright glow and almost has a shape of a large being like an angel.
So the spiritual dimension is real. The rank and file of heaven is working with the church now… is working with you. Heaven is cheering us on to keep running our race, to keep going, to engage in a prayer life, to exercise our authority, to recognize the glory of God is shining on us and in us and through us.
That as I’ve often said once again, just a reminder on a Wednesday morning, things in fact are rigged in our favor. If we’re going to read accurately the letters to the church. Some Bible scholars say that Paul’s writings really are an X-ray, a snapshot of what Jesus did through redemption. And one of the things Paul writes about is that Jesus made a show of the devil and all his forces, made an open show of them, triumphing over them in it. In what? In His death, burial, and resurrection. Glory to God.
