Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Pastor Ken…
Good morning, everybody.
Keep the practice of prayer…
There are a couple of verses that came to me this morning. Ones that I think of from time to time. And this one is found in 1st Peter 4:7 in the Amplified translation. It states, “But the end and culmination of all things has now come near. Keep sound minded…” In other words, have a strong disciplined mind. “…and self restrained.” In other words, employ discipline in your life. “…and stay alert. Therefore…” The Amplified Classic says, “the practice of prayer.” It’s a good reminder, isn’t it? I think so.
If My people who are called by My name…
And then if we were to jump to 2nd Chronicles 7:14, it states “If My people who are called by My name shall humble themselves and pray, seek, crave, and require of necessity My face and turn from their wicked ways.” In other words, repent. That’s what repentance means. It means make a decision to go a different direction, another direction, 180 degrees from the direction you’re heading in. “…turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land.”
The clarion call for this generation of believers…
Without a doubt, one of the clarion calls of our generation and this time to the church directly from heaven is the call to prayer is an invitation for us to partner with God the Holy Spirit, who is endeavoring to carry out God’s operation in the earth realm, to fulfill His will in the earth realm and in our lives. Without a doubt, that is the call right now. That’s the invitation. With the Holy Spirit, God wants us to become an integral part of His plans and what follows in the coming days in the way of awakening and revival and ultimately the Second Coming of Jesus.
That’s a good thing, right? That should make you smile on a Wednesday morning. Come on now! While we’re blessed in this life, oh how much more blessed it will be to see Him as He is and to be with Him for an eternity. My goodness. Don’t think about that too much, you might be drawn to the eternal realm. I’ve known of situations where people got a glimpse of it and they kept on going, didn’t want to come back.
Passage from book, “Processing the Plan of God Through Prayer”
Let me read something to you in regards to the purpose of prayer, what it produces and what it does and what we should be cognizant of as we pray this morning. And it’s from a book entitled, “Processing the Plan of God Through Prayer.”
“And the question is, what should the church do? Pray. Prayer causes situations and circumstances to change and brings God’s will to pass in the earth. In reading the works of the famed missionary John G Lake, I found he refers to the praying church as the generating power of God on the earth. One night, Dr. Lake sat on a hill overlooking villages in South Africa [which is where he was a missionary back towards the turn of the 20th century and into the early part of the 20th century.] He counted 1,100 villages and miles of land within the range of his vision. This territory represented millions of people still untouched by the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. As Dr. Lake cried out to God about what could be done to reach these people, he heard the Spirit of the Lord say, ‘The church, which is His body.’
“Dr. Lake knew the church was doing everything possible in the natural to reach people. So this phrase had to mean something else. Finally, Dr. Lake understood it; to have the will of God in the earth, it was going to take the church, the body of Christ, praying the will and plan of God down to the earth. Dr. Lake saw that the praying church is like a generator that produces electricity. Power is always present, but it takes an avenue to channel that power where it is needed so it can be used. Thus, prayer is like God’s divine generator. It produces the power to generate God’s will on earth.”
Pastor Ken’s personal experience with prayer building a foundation in him…
And while he’s speaking of a broader context, this is true. I’ve known this to be true scripturally and in my own life on a personal or individual basis. There are some things in my life, and maybe you’ve done the same, where I had to pray until I was able to obey. I had to pray. There were seasons actually in my life when I was younger where I noticed that I was just focusing on my prayer life. I was spending time in the Word, of course, but in my prayer life. And I didn’t realize that at the time. But my prayer life was changing me in many ways. But it was also building a foundation under me and strengthening me and giving me strength of spirit.
The scripture records in the Old Testament that it is the strong spirit of a man, or a woman, that is able to sustain him or her through bodily harm, trouble, difficulty, and adversity. Sometimes the answer that we’re searching for doesn’t go any further than a decision to “day by day” choose to pray, to spend much time alone with our Heavenly Father.
The Apostle Paul, “This is my determined purpose…”
I suppose that’s why the Apostle Paul said… at least it’s rendered this way in the Amplified Classic Bible, “This is my determined purpose, that I might know Him intimately, personally, organically, authentically.” Why? Because it’s through relationship that we experience the power of God. It’s through relationship and prayer that we, as this pastor says, generate power. And that power is not some far-out-there ethereal sort of thing. That power is bottom line where the rubber meets the road, where your life hits power that you can sense it and feel it coursing through your being, your body. Where it affects your mind and helps you to think more clearly, helps you see more accurately according to what God has in mind for your future.
Prayer generates power…
So prayer is without a doubt far more reaching than we give it credit for and impactful. And without a doubt, it does generate power that will strengthen and embolden because we see in the early church, the church prayed and one of the results was they were filled with boldness to proclaim and preach the Gospel of the way of Jesus to their known world at the time, which meant that they were always under the threat of being persecuted and even martyred. So you better believe that they prayed because their life depended on it.
Truth is, our lives and the will of God depend on our choice to pray. We just have too many creature comforts to realize that. We have it easy compared to the First Century Church. Or perhaps other churches, the underground church in Iran presently, or the underground church in China, where you better be someone who is led by the Spirit of God on the inside because your life could depend on it. Whether you go to a jail cell or back home that day, as to whether or not your life depends on your prayer life. Your very being and livelihood and life.
Connecting with the Father through prayer…
Well, the truth is, our lives depend on our relationship, on our interaction, and our connection with our Heavenly Father. We connect with Him through the Word, but we also connect with Him through prayer. And make no mistake about it, one of the calls of the Spirit in addition to prayer is the Word. In fact, we’re in an hour where God desires the Word and the Spirit to come together and to be evident and prioritized and in fullness in and through the church. That we would walk in the Word and we would also walk in the Spirit; and both of them together.
Will you take the challenge?
So I just challenge you today, you’re going to make your way forward in the plan of God today. We are going to make our way forward in establishing His kingdom at Living Word, in Minnesota, and across the globe via prayer. It is His plan that we would engage with Him, partner with Him through this process of prayer, through this opportunity to pray.
Now, let me read one more thing to you…
This is a short excerpt from a book by a man named Kevin Zedi. I’ve referred to him before. He’s the gentleman who had a life-after-death experience in the early nineties. He went in for a relatively routine dental surgery and ended up expiring on the operating table. His vital signs all flatlined, and he was gone for 45 minutes according to those that were there in the surgery room. Well, while he was in heaven, he had an experience with the Lord. And one of the experiences was this. He said…
Testimony of man that died and saw Jesus…
“Instantaneously, as though the destination had come to us.” In other words, he was with Jesus and it was almost like a destination in the Western US came to him and they were looking down over this destination, this place. “We were standing on a mountaintop overlooking what appeared to be the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. As we stood there, he said to me, ‘Here’s what happens when you begin to pray.’”
The Lord was instructing him and showing him some things.
He told Kevin, “Start to pray.” So he started to pray. And in that moment, he said, “Then a fireball resembling an atomic explosion erupted, upon him praying. As we watched the plume created by the fireball towered high above us, Jesus then pointed out a shockwave that was traveling away from the explosion, away from the epicenter of the detonation. And it was traveling in every direction. The shockwave came quickly and with great intensity. And it was so powerful that it removed everything standing in its path.” So now this is an example of prayer, showing him kind of a tangible example of what prayer does.
He said…
“After this illustration of how powerful our prayers are, Jesus encouraged me to never give up on my prayers and to always pray with intensity and faith. Even when I did not see changes or immediate results, He told me ‘Continue praying and see it through to the end. You see, your prayers are effective. They do work.’ From this revelation, I realized that when we pray, a shockwave emanates from that and levels everything in its path. Anything hindering the answer is pushed out of the way.”
Prayer makes a way when we don’t see a way…
Do you see that? Oh, when you begin to pray here this morning, everything that’s hindering you is going to be pushed out of its way, bulldozed out of the way. That’s why what John the Baptist stated is a great example of what happens when we make faith decrees, when we intercede. He said, “Let every mountain be leveled. Let every crooked place be made straight. Let every valley and rutted place be made smooth for the coming of the Lord.” You could say or add for the establishment of what God intends, His rightness, His righteousness. Well, prayer makes a way when we don’t see a way. It builds a road over which God is able to accomplish His purposes.
Finally, this article goes on to say…
“I understood that nothing is impossible when we believe, and that all things are actually possible through Him, according to Mark 9:23. Please never underestimate the massive power released by the Holy Spirit to answer your prayers. He taught me that we are to be infused with breath from heaven, speaking God’s words for God’s purposes on the earth about those things that concern us. By speaking with God’s authority, we allow Him to advance His kingdom through us and for us.”
I thought that was good. So let’s do that this morning. Let’s give time and space to pray.
