Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Worship leader Kathy…
Good morning, everybody. So with the change into the new year, we always like to think about what’s ahead, right? It’s also good to stop and think about what God has done for us in the last year. So I was just praying about what God wanted me to share and open with, and He told me to share what we do in our house. So throughout the year, we have what we call a blessing jar. It sits on our dining room table, and as the little and the big things come along that God blesses us with, we write them down. We stick them in the jar. And then December 31st we get them out. And we read them all. And we remember all the blessings that God has given us throughout the year. It’s good for us to stop and think about what the Lord has done for us, not just the provisional blessings, but His mercy and His grace, as I’m pretty sure I know where I’d be without the Lord and it would not be a good place. So this morning we’re going to start by just thinking about what the Lord has done for us.
Pastor Ken…
Good morning, everyone. Happy Wednesday.
Announcement…
For those of you that are local, next Monday, the 13th of January, there will be a prayer rally at the Minnesota State Capitol Rotunda, starting at 1:30 p.m. Actually, there’ll be people gathering earlier for Bible reading, like at 11:15. But the prayer and worship time will start at 1:30. I went last year. I’m hoping to go next week as well. For an hour or two, we’ll be praising and worshiping and praying for the opening session of the Minnesota State Legislature.
How many of you believe God is moving in our leadership in our nation and honestly around the world? The more I hear what’s going on in other countries even, the more it’s clear to me God is moving and reorganizing and doing some different things in leadership in the governments of nations, including our own.
So that reminds me, our job has just begun as followers of Jesus. And that is to pray. We’re taught in the Word that first and foremost, we should pray for those in authority, those in leadership, so that the plan can prosper so that we might live quiet and peaceable and productive lives in the plan of God. So keep that in mind. And if you can join us on the 13th down at the State Capitol at 1:30.
This morning, can I start off by reading Psalm 46 to you guys? Just as something that came up in my heart as we were worshiping. But in Psalm 46, let me read this as you reflect on it from the Passion translation. It says…
For the pure and shining one by the prophetic singers of Chorus Klan. [This is a poetic song]
“God, you’re such a safe and powerful place to find refuge. You’re a proven help in time of trouble, more than enough and always available whenever I need you. See, we will never fear, even if every structure of support were to crumble away. We will not fear even when the earthquakes and shakes moving mountains and casting them into the sea, for the raging roar of stormy winds and crashing waves cannot erode our faith in you.”
Psalm 46:4 says…
“God has a constantly flowing river whose sparkling streams bring joy and delight to His people.”
That’s my prayer for you this morning, that you would experience those sparkling streams that bring joy and delight to His people. Amen. Kind of goes back to what I like to say Heaven isn’t just a place, heaven is a flow. It’s a stream that is available to us each and every day.
So, Lord, help us to receive from that sparkling stream today, wherever we are.
If you’re online and you’re tuning in maybe for the first time, I pray that God would just open up to you a resource and a supply of heaven into your situation, into your life, into your experience of a relationship with Him, that you would experience joy today.
It goes on to say…
“His river flows right through the city of God most high into His holy dwelling places. God is in the midst of His city, secure and never shaken. At daybreak, His help will be seen with the appearing of the dawn. When the nations are in uproar with tottering kingdoms, God simply raises His voice and the earth begins to disintegrate before Him.”
That’s the God we serve.
“Here he comes, the commander, the mighty Lord of angel armies is on our side. The God of Jacob fights for us.”
Oh, that’s a good thought. I was thinking about that yesterday a little bit. About how many times God has fought for me, even in instances where people probably thought I should have been doing more in a situation in my natural strength or ability or maybe filed a lawsuit or advocated or spoken up or gotten in a debate with somebody about something.
But the more you grow in faith, the more you learn to rest and trust. There are things you must naturally do at times, but the more you press into Him, the more you wait upon Him, you understand. You begin to realize and have a confidence in the fact that waiting is real work. Waiting in His presence. Trusting is real work that God is able to do so much more than we can ask or think when we deepen our relationship with Him, when we deepen our time in His presence. He’s able to do for us remarkably so much more than we realize at times to resolve things, to solve problems, to bring a conclusion to a situation that needs to be resolved in some way.
God wants to journey with us through this life…
He’s not just so far out there, ethereal, cosmic deity on a power trip of some kind. He’s a person—the Holy Spirit. Meant to journey with us through this life, to assist us in not just spiritual things, but in the most practical concerns of our day-to-day existence—
In our finances
In our health
In our relationships with decisions that need to be made.
Maybe today for you, He’s there. He’s an ever-present help, the Bible reveals. Jesus said He’s the one, the Holy Spirit that is, that I will send to you, who will be to your advantage. He will be to your profit, the King James says. He will be profitable for you and for me. Yes, in prayer, but in every other arena of life as well. He is there. Jesus Himself said He’s there to reveal, to transmit, and to disclose.
Begin looking for the Holy Spirit’s participation…
I share that because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. And the more you hear about God’s goodness, the more you hear about the functioning and the work of the Holy Spirit, I hope that your expectation will be elevated and that you’ll begin looking for His goodness and looking for the Holy Spirit’s participation
In your day-to-day
In your prayers
In your decisions
In your relationships.
He’s an ever-present help in time of need. The Bible reveals…
He is the standby.
He’s ever standing by us.
He is with us.
He’s for us.
He inhabits us.
Expect God to lead you…
So I just encourage you in that this morning. I have found that often I don’t sense God’s leadership because I haven’t really expected Him to lead me, expected Him to speak to me. And I don’t know, maybe it was because I, I listened to a pastor that I follow who pastors a church out in California. For a season of my life, I lived in California in the Inland Empire area. Rancho Cucamonga Alta Loma area, which is about an hour east of Los Angeles. I can remember the season that I lived out there. It was kind of one of the first times in my life many years ago when I started to practice opening my journal when I would pray. I would just pray in the spirit and sometimes not even having anything particular I was asking God for, but just spending time in His presence, worshiping Him, praying in the spirit. And that was the time in my life when I began to intentionally open my journal, and at the end of my time of prayer in particular, I would just wait and just like sense, “is He saying something? What’s percolating in my heart? What can I begin to write down in my journal?”
Sometimes there was nothing. And that’s okay. It’s still the practicing of waiting in the presence of God that is so important now, has always been. But oftentimes, I would begin to write something or I would begin to listen and I would begin to pick up on what He was saying to me. Oftentimes it was just encouraging. But sometimes there were solutions, there were answers. There was a thought that just occurred to me like, “Oh, maybe I should call so-and-so today.”
There was one particular day…
where I began to write some very specific things down in my journal that had dates and times, in fact, that pertained to my life and my next steps in my journey of faith and my calling in life. And I wrote that down. I tucked that away. I remember a year later, I went back and read my journal and pretty much to the date the things that He spoke to my heart manifested… it came into existence, occurred in my life.
Elevate your expectancy for God to speak to you…
So I just challenge you to elevate your expectancy that God is speaking and is orienting your life. He’s preparing us. He endeavors to pray through us. He’s the God of the future. In other words, you can pray forward. You can pray out and pray things through before you walk it out. That’s really God’s design, that we would pray things out before we walk it out, that He would even download things to us like He did to me on that day in advance of those things occurring.
John 16:13, He will guide you into all truth…
He’s the God of the future. “How be it?” The Bible says in John 16:13, “when He, the spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth.” One Bible commentator says “into the reality of God’s will for your life.” He will guide you into all the truth. And it goes on to say, “And He will even show you things to come.”
So let’s finish Psalm 46…
“Everyone look, come and see the breathtaking wonders of our God. For He brings both ruin and revival. [In other words, He tears down and he builds up.] He’s the one who makes conflicts end throughout the earth, breaking and burning every weapon of war. Surrender your anxiety. Be still and realize that I am God. I am God above all the nations, and I am exalted throughout the whole earth. Here He stands, the commander, the mighty Lord of angel armies is on our side. The God of Jacob fights for us.”
Declaration…
I declare that over you today.
“The God of Jacob fights for you, works for you, will resolve issues for you, will provide for you, will heal for you.”
