Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Pastor Ken…
Hello everyone! Happy Wednesday. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Depending on where you’re joining us from online or when you’re watching this. My name is Ken; if you don’t already know that.
Prayer and Presence Conference…
I have a couple of announcements. If you haven’t already heard, be sure to join us for this year’s 2024 Prayer Presence Conference on March 15–17. It’s Friday through Sunday. We’ve got special guests Pastor Joseph Harris, Heidi Baker, Leif Hetland, and hosted by our very own pastors, Mac and Lynne Hammond. It’ll be hosted here at Living Word Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. It will be a truly impactful and a marked moment in God’s timetable for you and I believe for the body of Christ. We’re going to stream it online, of course.
Interested in becoming an online host?
Secondly, I want to encourage those of you online, if you connect with morning prayer, you have for some time, and you would like to kind of take a next step, I encourage you to consider becoming one of our online hosts. You know, let the hosts in the chat this morning know that you’re interested in being a part of our ministry team and becoming an online host to pray with people, encourage people, share information. It’s easy to do. Just let the hosts know in the chat. Make a comment. “Hey, I’m interested. I would like to consider becoming an online host.” We’ll work with you. We’ll train you. We’ll put you on one of our ministry teams. How often you do it is somewhat up to you. But we are on mission to build a bigger and bigger team to do what God’s called us to do in regard to prayer.
God is faithful to hear the prayers of the righteous…
God is rallying the church, if you haven’t noticed in this hour to pray. And there are really some significant things we need to pray out this morning, which I’ll get into here maybe after we worship a little bit. But before we worship, I wanted to say, really just draw your attention to the fact if your faith has been “flagging” as the saying goes, or maybe struggling in some ways to believe or trust God, trust His promise. Maybe you’ve prayed and haven’t seen an answer or the result that you expected. I just want to encourage you this morning that God is faithful. That His Word is true.
In fact, just to kind of boost your faith a little bit this morning, let me draw your attention to Proverbs 15:29. It says, “The Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayers of the righteous.” If you didn’t know, you’re righteous. If you profess the name of Jesus, then you became a recipient of the righteousness that Jesus obtained on our behalf. Right? He who knew no sin became sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
Followers of Jesus are clothed with a garment of righteousness…
So it doesn’t matter how you feel this morning, what you did the other day, how you rolled out a bed today, I just want to inform you that if you are a follower of Jesus, you’ve received His gift of salvation, then you are clothed with, you have put on a jacket… a garment of righteousness. And you stand in a spiritual sense as a son and a daughter of the most high God, made perfect in spirit in the image of Jesus. And so the Lord is far from the wicked, but hears the prayers of the righteous.
The Lord answers the prayers of the righteous…
Isaiah 68:24 says, “It shall come to pass that before they call…” That would be us, the righteous. “I will answer. And while they are still speaking, I will hear.”
There’s one passage in scripture that says, “The Lord’s ear is inclined.” In other words, turn towards the prayers of the righteous. So no matter how you feel or what it looks like or what someone told you or what the enemy’s harassing you with in the way of negative thoughts, I’m here to say this morning that you are in family. You have been adopted into God’s very own household. And He loves you and His thoughts are prolific toward you. And He hears your prayer and knows the intention of your heart and knows what you need. And while the answer hasn’t precipitated, God has answered if you prayed that prayer of faith. Have you chosen to take a strong stand on His Word regarding your finances, regarding a family situation, regarding your future or decision you need to make? God sees. He hears. He understands. And He is still responsive. Glory to God!
Pastor Ken’s personal testimony of answered prayer…
I was reminded the other day of a situation a couple years back that I was out on a run. That might be a theme in my life. I’m always out on a run or walking somewhere. And when I’m running or walking or going for a hike, I talk to God.
And there was this one day I was kind of anxious and struggling concerning an answer what I should do in this particular situation. And I remember being out running and saying, “Lord, show me! Show me what to do in this situation. Grant me a spirit of wisdom and revelation regarding this situation, this decision.” And I was out for probably an hour and 45 minutes. And I got back. I remember sitting down in my chair and taking my running shoes off. And as soon as I got home, I got a phone call… which was the answer that I’ve been praying about. I was almost taken aback a little bit like, “Whoa, my gosh. What is this prayer a hotline to heaven?” Yeah, it is. Amen.
The Father knows of your need even before you pray…
But understand that there are oftentimes… we live in a very slow dimension. Things move slowly if you haven’t noticed in one sense, whereas God’s dimension moves at the speed of light. So, of course, the Bible says when you pray, believe that you receive. Because in the moment you pray, in the moment you declare, in the moment you release your supplication, your request to the Father, He hears and responds. He already knew before you prayed. That’s how He’s ahead of time and space, honestly. But oftentimes there are things that need to shift and change in this realm. Things that need to line up. People that God is working in their hearts about things. And because God’s a legal or a just God, He doesn’t just usurp somebody’s authority. He works with people just like you and me, right?
And so I just encourage you today. Maybe there’s some things God’s working in this dimension to line up, to shift, to change, so that the answer can show up at the right moment when you need it. Hallelujah! Glory to God!
Even just recently, I was praying about a situation with my kids and praying for an answer, praying for a compromise in this situation. And I’ve been praying for a couple weeks, and then just the other day, BAM! There it is. But for a couple weeks, I was resisting being worked up about it, being dreadful about it, being frustrated about it, disappointed about it.
The enemy tempts us to be dominated by our feelings…
It’s okay. The enemy comes and does his best to try to tempt us and to get us to be dominated by our feelings. And our feelings have their place. But when it comes to the big choices and direction of our lives, our feelings ought not govern us. We’re to walk by faith. So it’s okay to sit with those feelings.
I often say, you need to take time to just sit with God and let the Holy Spirit help you process those feelings. Whatever those feelings are. Feelings can come. And feelings can go. But God’s Word, as far as I’m concerned, shall stand and flourish and prosper in my life. Amen.
So don’t let that feeling detour you…
Bring it to the Lord and say, “Holy Spirit, help me to process through this feeling that I’m having regarding this situation, this feeling of fear, wanting to give up or throw in the towel or wave a white flag in some way in my life.” No, God’s not through with you. He’s not through with the church. This is to be your shining hour. This is to be your thriving and prosperous hour. As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. As far as I’m concerned, the Word still rings true, which is His intent is that we the church, you as an individual, you and your children would increase more and more. Hallelujah. Glory to God.
Let’s not lose our excitement about God’s plan…
When I was a teenager, I got so excited thinking about the possibilities of what could be and should be in the plan of God for my life and for my future. Let’s not lose that. God’s working things out in people and situations. He’s making a way where you don’t see a way right now. Just know that.
Let the Holy Spirit help you, coach you, mentor you to see as He sees. And sometimes, honestly, I was thinking of this verse this morning too. Sometimes it’s not so much that something needs to happen in the natural arena for the answer to come through, for the open door of opportunity to show up. Sometimes we need to see differently. That’s why we’re having certain feelings or why we’re not seeing the answer physically at this moment.
Lord, search my heart…
In fact, in Psalm 139, you probably know this verse as David praying, “Lord, see if there be any wrong or wicked way in me; search my heart.” Well, that same passage in Psalm 139, in the Passion paraphrase says, “God, I invite your searching gaze into my heart.” That’d be a good thing right there. So much of the quality of our lives is what’s going on internally. And if you’re introvert, so much of your life is lived out up here, right. So, of course, we want God to search us with His penetrating gaze and to help us to see and perceive and have the right perception or attitude from the inside out.
As your soul goes, so goes your life…
First John 3:2. “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as your soul, even as your interior prospers and is in health.” There’s sometimes, I’ve gone to my prayer closet or been on a walk and said, “Lord, I don’t know what’s going on, but I know you do. So, Lord, I pray that you would just tinker with my soul this day that you would do surgery in me.” And then I would just begin to pray in the Spirit and just allow Him to have His way. Just turn my will over to Him. Turn my emotions, my heart, my interior over to Him. Because as your soul goes, so goes your life. God doesn’t just want you to have more things or have another opportunity. He wants that too. He wants you to thrive from the inside out. He’s an “inside out God.” And so much of where we will go and the prayers we’ll pray, and what He’s called us to do has to do with what we’re becoming today in Him.
And I realize from a spiritual standpoint, we’re new creatures in Christ Jesus. But God wants to integrate our souls, our mind, our will, our emotions, all that we’ve been through, even the baggage we carry around with on a given day. He wants to help process that. He wants to unpack that. He wants to give you a new heart.
Yes, spiritually you are a new heart. You’re a recreated human spirit, but you also have a soul, right? This whole other part of you that a lot of Pentecostals and charismatics don’t even talk about. They’ve compartmentalized it. “Oh, bless the Lord. God is good.” But all the while they’re hurting, they’re broken, they’re busted, they’re in debt because their soul has yet to go unaddressed.
So I just encourage you this morning…
If you want to become more effective in prayer, let the Lord lead you down the road in the path of Him touching your soul and ministering and doing surgery and bringing recovery and healing to your soul so that your soul can be properly integrated with your spirit and they can work together.
Your thoughts and your words and your attitudes and your emotions begin to work together with your spirit and your capacity to do for God will grow exponentially. Your capacity to enjoy life and to be free from the inside out will be just so much greater.
Sometimes a change in perspective is all that’s needed…
David writes in Psalm 139:23 in the Passion paraphrase, “God, I invite your searching gaze into my heart, examine me through and through, find out everything that may be hidden from me.” Hmm, interesting. “Put me to the test and sift through all my anxious cares.” I hear the phrase “process.” He wants to process some things. Sometimes nothing needs to change for you to change. Sometimes the only thing that needs to change is a change in perspective for your whole life to change. So instead of getting up on a given day and seeing everything as a static gray in your life, God wants to transform it to vibrant technicolor. How you see life because of how He’s able to fiddle with the knobs of your soul. He’s able to tweak and turn and tune.
God wants to tune you, just a little tweak…
They were talking about that on the news last night ahead of the Super Bowl. Yes, it’s Super Bowl weekend. Maybe we should pray about that. I don’t know. But they did a whole news story on how you can tune your television, tune in the color and the contrast and the boldness of it and all the little settings to what you see you can electronically tune. God wants to tune you. He wants to fiddle with the knobs of your heart. Amen. So that even when you go out of here today, even when you go through your Wednesday, your Thursday, your Friday, things are looking up because God has tuned you up. He wants to tune up the church. He wants to tweak. I’ve always said it just takes a little tweak to lead to a big peak. Just a little tweak. Hallelujah! That’s really what faith is.
Faith is what you focus on…
It is your perspective. It is the set of glasses, the prescription of glasses you put on. Are you wearing the glasses from your past and from the trauma you’ve been through or from a past mistake or somebody who abandoned you or did something hurtful toward you. Or are you choosing to put on the glasses of faith? The glasses and perspective of God the Holy Spirit. He has a way of seeing that will cause your heart to thrive. There is a way in God to see and perceive your life, your relationship with Him. And even the world that will cause your heart to thrill and be excited. And as the Bible says, rejoice with joy unspeakable and be filled with the glory of God. There’s a way to see that will cause you to perpetually be a pray-er. Praying always, as Paul writes, for all things. Amen.
