Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Pastor Ken…
Good morning, everyone. Good to see y’all here in the chapel. My name is Ken and I’m one of the pastors on staff here at Living Word. And it is my blessing to join you in prayer today.
We are “to pray to pray…”
I thought I’d change things up today and start by sharing a couple of reflections from a couple things that have been speaking to me in regard to our preparation in prayer. Pastor Lynne has used the phrase over the years that we are to “pray to pray.” It’s true that we’re not here to manufacture in our own intellect or what we think needs to be prayed about. Instead, God has certain things on His heart and certain things He wants to grant that will come through us in the form of prayer. Inspirations, initiatives, utterances, expressions, prayers and intercessions—He grants them. And we’re simply the conduit through which they are brought forth in the earth.
We must connect the hose to the spigot…
I was thinking about how I’m looking forward to spring and summer and I went to school for horticulture. I’ve done a lot of landscape design over the years. And I was looking out my backyard the other day at the frozen tundra that is here in Minnesota at the moment in the early part of February and thinking about what I would like to do with my yard and how I want to redesign some things. And I look forward to growing roses and vegetables and all that good stuff. And it just made me think this morning about the fact that in many ways, the earth is God’s garden. And I was thinking also about how when you want to water your yard or want to water your flowers or your vegetables or whatever, you use a hose oftentimes. And you’ve got to connect that hose to a spigot on the outside exterior of your house. And then you can bring water to whatever garden or part of your yard that you so desire. And I thought prayer is like that. Prayer is God being able to flow through us with His resource, with His initiatives. It’s our ability to water the garden of His plan in the earth. But first you have to connect the hose to the spigot. We are the hose in a way. We’ve got to connect to Him. We’re not here to manufacture our own prayers. I’m not here to execute my agenda. I just want what He wants.
“Lord, help me to be a better conduit…”
I was up last night praying, and one thing that emerged from my spirit was, “Lord, help me to be a better carrier or a better conduit.” I’m just a vessel. You’re just a vessel. That is the whole message of the Gospel. Jesus did what He did so that He could recreate us on the inside, in our spirits initially. And we’re in the process of being recreated in our soul—our mind, will, and emotions. That’s a lifelong process to become more reflective of Him, to glorify Him not only in our spirits, but also in all that we are.
Always be in the process of preparing to pray…
And so I just was thinking about how important it is when it comes to prayer to be always in the process of preparing to pray—“to pray to pray,” to pursue Him to pray, to take time waiting on Him, worshiping Him, delighting yourself in Him, being a perpetual student of His Word. Because faith isn’t something either that you can manufacture. Faith initially is a gift, but it grows as we continue to hear His Word, and we continue to pray over that word and respond or act on His Word.
Quote from Pastor Lynne’s book, “Whispers From the Secret Place”
And so I wanted to read just a little something and Pastor Lynne writes in her short devotional book, “Whispers From the Secret Place,” where she references Hebrews 11:1, which I’ve been meditating much on lately. You probably are familiar with the Hebrews 11:1. If you’re not, check it out. It simply states, “Now faith is the substance…” I think the Amplified Bible says faith is the “title deed.” One translation says, “the evidence of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen.”
She goes on to write…
“Before I begin to pray, I should always take a moment to check my faith level. I should make sure my heart is prepared, not just to beg God for answers, but to believe for them.” Remember, faith is key and critical in believing, right? It’s not something we manufacture; it’s something we receive and something that grows as we fellowship with Him, as we fellowship with His Word. Prayer in the spirit can energize your faith as well.
She says…
“Of all the elements involved in prayer, I think faith is the most vital. It’s like the spiritual vehicle in which I travel. The strength of my faith determines whether my prayers go by Pony Express or by Concord.” You guys remember what the Concord was? That supersonic jet that I think the British developed originally. I don’t think it’s even flown right now, but I thought that was a good analogy.
She goes on to say…
“A little faith will get me a long way, but great faith will get me even further. No matter how deeply concerned I may be about a situation, no matter how fervently I may pray about it, if I can’t pray about it in faith, God won’t be able to get work done through me. That’s why instead of leading me to intercede or make petition about situations, the Holy Spirit sometimes directs me to set them aside for a while and I just spend time fellowshipping with the Father, reading His Word and praying in tongues to build myself up in my most holy faith. At times like that, I must be careful not to resist Him. I must be careful not to force my way back into intercessory prayer, but to go with the flow, trusting the Holy Spirit to help me develop my faith and giving Him the time He needs to do it. Then when He puts me back on my prayer project, my prayers will be far more powerful and effective because they’ll be backed by stronger faith.”
Then I’m going to jump down to the last section where she writes…
“Oh, how glad I was then that the Lord had pulled me off my prayer project and drawn me back into His Word. By doing so, He brought my faith to a whole new level. He made me confident of this very thing that He who has begun a good work in me or in the church, will complete it unto the day of Jesus Christ. He helped me get off my Pony Express and onto the Concord. Now I can pray believing.”
Pastor Ken’s personal notes…
And I jotted this down the other day. It’s simply this: “You maintain your heading toward the plan of God by holding your focus on the Word of God.” Isn’t that good?
Quote from Mrs. C Nuzum’s book, “The Life of Faith”
Now, let me read something else to you here this morning. It’s found in Mrs. C Nuzum’s book, a classic, entitled “The Life of Faith.” And she writes in chapter 14, entitled, “The Faith That Takes.”
She Writes…
“God has been keeping the word ‘take’ before me. It has been estimated that the Bible contains 32,000 promises. God Himself planned and made all the promises. Jesus came and purchased them. At the very close of the Bible, we find the word “take” in Revelation 22:17. God gave us Jesus, all that He is and all that He has and all that He has done. Also, He has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness.” 2nd Peter 1:3 There is in Jesus all that we can need for spirit, soul, and body. And if we have all that pertains to life and godliness, we also have all we need for all temporal things. This promise is in the past tense ‘half given.’ God gave half given and now He entreats us to take what has already been given. Boost your faith instills you with a tenacity and a fight to your faith.”
Ms. Nuzum goes on to say…
“The Greek word in Mark 11:24, which is translated ‘receive’ is a word that means ‘take with much force, seize with a grip that will not be shaken off.’”
In other words, I think Rick Renner once put it this way that tenacious faith is a faith that, like a bulldog, clamps down on the bone of God’s promise with its jowls and will not let that promise be taken from him. We need to have bulldog faith in this hour. Either we believe His words or we don’t. If He said He’s begun a good work in you, then He will not only further it and advance it, but as one Bible translation says, “bring it to a flourishing finish.”
If He said that He will bring forth His glory in this hour out ahead of His return, let’s just clamp down on that promise. And not let go. Whether it’s healing or finances or the salvation of your family or the work that must be done in your nation, God is looking to the church, His body in the earth, to like that bulldog to have the tenacity and the determination that we’re going to grab hold of His promises. We’re going to grab hold of His Word. And we’re going to hold fast to that through every season from where we are until we can say, “Look, there it is in its fullness, in its manifestation.”
Mrs. Nusum goes on to say…
“God laments that ‘none stirreth himself up to take hold of God.’ Isaiah 64:7. Every promise of God is a part of His covenant, and it takes a real stirring up to put away half-heartedness.”
If you’re lukewarm, if you’re half-hearted, if you’re wavering in some way, then just call it out between you and God and just humble yourself and invite His grace.
I want to be one who stirs himself up to take hold of more of God. I want to be one who is a glory hotspot in the earth. I want to be one that is contending in the Secret Place for what God has planned for. And maybe it doesn’t affect me directly, but maybe it affects another nation or affects another family or an individual. We’re here sent on mission. It’s not just about us and about our little deal. God will take care of our little deal (or our big deal), but we’re here to take up His deal. We’re here to lay down our lives and pick up our cross and follow Him one day at a time, pursuing and following Him as we journey to know Him.
Once again, Ms. Nuzum says…
“Put away half-heartedness, doubts, waverings and unbelief, and take the things which God has given us. How do we take them? Jesus said, ‘What things soever you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them and you shall have them.’ Mark 11:24. The only limit here is real earnest desire for the things for which we ask. The things of God are so precious, He will not give them to those who are not greatly desiring them. It is those who hunger and thirst who will be filled. Matthew 5:6. He shall have them here in Mark 11, not hope to have them, but shall have them. In 1st John 5:14 and 15, we read, ‘We know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.’
And then it says…
“Hold fast that which thou hast.’ Revelations 3:11. The Devil is busy trying to take from us what we take from God. And so God bids us to hold fast. Jesus gave Peter power to walk on water, but the Devil took it from him by getting him to fix his attention on the wind, representing things we feel.”
Let me just interject this…
Remember, faith is as much focus as anything. What you focus on, you move toward. Faith has a focus. And that focus is firstly on His Word. In His Book but also the one He’s spoken in your heart. I don’t know about you, but in recent days there was a situation that I was… I don’t know, I’m a very intellectual, I don’t say that to say anything of myself, I’m just saying I know my temperament. I’m very much a thinker and a processor and one who judges and perceives, versus a high feeler. And so there was a situation that I didn’t realize right away that I’d taken the care of it because I started processing the problem exclusively intellectually with what was going on in this situation. And I kept thinking about it and I kept turning it over my mind. And before long I’m like, “Why don’t I have any peace? Why am I frustrated and wanting to just… ugh!” Just take matters into my own hands. And then I realized that I was trying to work out the situation in my mind, not realizing that Jesus had already worked it out for me.
We’re not to walk according to our own minds…
And that the enemy was taking from me because I was operating exclusively in my intellect. I’m not saying we don’t use our minds; of course we do. But as Marie-Helene said this weekend, we’re not to walk according to our emotions or our past experience or the popular culture’s vibe and what it’s saying. We’re to walk according to the Word. First and foremost. And the hour in which we demand as pray-ers and believers will demand that we walk according to the Word, closely to His Word.
Prepare to pray…
Jesus said in John 15, “If you abide in Me and My words abide, live, remain dwell in you.” And I’ll just put up my paraphrase. That’s what sets you up to be effective in prayer because you prepare to pray. You live like Pastor Lynne shared from that place of connection and relationship and intimacy with Him through His Word, through worship, through times of simple waiting before Him in His presence. That’s what prepares you. That’s what connects your life to the spigot of God’s glory, heaven’s flow, so that there can be a discharge and a flow of faith, and a flow of divine initiative and a flow of God’s divine intentionality through us to water His purpose and His plan in the earth. So that there can be real results and real power put on display and real fruitfulness and a real harvest.
Oh, that’s good, isn’t it?
Peter lost his focus…
“So the Devil is busy trying to take from us what we take from God. And so God bids us ‘hold fast.’ Jesus gave Peter power to walk on water, but the Devil took it from him by getting him to fix his attention on the wind representing things we feel, and on the waves representing the things we see. Peter had the power and used it. But one doubt made him lose it.”
So right there you can see the importance of focus… to set your focus. The Bible reads, “Each day adopt a fresh or new attitude of mind.” That attitude is His found in His Word. If we are cleansed, obedient, and separated from all feelings, self, and the world, we can meet the conditions of a promise, ask for what we desire, and take it by believing that God gives it now.”
Right? Now faith is. Faith is now.
It goes on to say…
“You must then say, ‘I have it. It is now mine.’ And then you must keep your eyes on Jesus. Refuse to see or feel things that look contrary and wait before God. He lets you see the thing which you have taken from Him by faith. The Bible tells us that God works while we wait, and we are waiting on God only when all our thoughts, attention, and mind are fixed on Him. And we put away quickly, every thought, which the Devil thrusts upon us.”
And finally, she writes…
“Many take things from God and at once get absorbed in other things and lose all. Instead of this, wait, praying, thanking, and worshiping until God lets you see. Know that He is working because He says that He works while you wait and He cannot lie.”
And finally, she quotes John 11:40…
“Said I not unto thee that if you would believe you would see.”
Prayed…
So, Father, we thank you for your Word and for these simple reminders today. We thank you that you are at work in the hearts and lives of those who are joined with us online. We pray, Father, for a stirring in our souls today, a stirring to seek you, to know you, to take hold and to focus and turn our attention to your Word and your promises.
