Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Pastor Ken…
Well, good morning, everyone. Happy Wednesday.
What to do if you’re in the middle of a battle…
I have some things I want to share with you. I was looking at a verse in Deuteronomy 20:1. I wanted to read this. If you’re facing some challenges in life or standing for a loved one for a situation to change in some way, whatever that situation is you’re dealing with, some circumstances that seem to be contrary to what you think God intends for you. In other words, you’re in the middle of a battle. Well, here’s a strong word for you on a Wednesday morning. Deuteronomy 20:1 says, “When you go out to battle against your enemies and see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, do not be afraid.”
In other words, when the circumstances are rising and swelling against you contrary to what you desire, what you know God has promised, when you see that, do not be afraid of them… “For the Lord your God is with you who brought you up from the land of Egypt?” In other words, the good work that He’s begun in us, He’s going to continue it and bring it to full completion. He’s not done with you and I yet. He has a plan. He has intentions to do some good things, and He’s in that process right now.
Do not let your heart faint…
“Do not be afraid of them for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. So it shall be when you are on the verge of battle that the priests shall approach and speak to the people. And he shall say to them, “Hear, O Israel, today, you are on the verge of a battle with your enemies. Do not let your heart faint. Do not be afraid and do not tremble or be terrified because of them for the Lord your God is he who goes with you.”
That’s a good reminder this morning.
“For the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to save you.” I think in another place, God instructs Israel to just simply stand still and observe God marching into battle and doing great exploits for you.
So as we worship today, understand that this is our destiny, our purpose, to turn our hearts toward Him, to celebrate and worship the work that He’s already done for us, to labor to enter in as the New Testament says, the rest of God. It’s in rest that we realize that He is the one that fights for us. He’s the one that is able to orchestrate and do what needs to be done in our affairs and in our journey to make it right, to restore, to deliver, to set us free.
And can I just add to that this morning that just a simple reminder of our worth in God’s eyes, or from His perspective. Your worth and value in Him is so great. If we could be in His throne room for a moment, which we are in the spirit, if you will. We’re entering into that place. We would sense an overwhelming acceptance, an overwhelming love, an overwhelming perception that we are of great value to the Father.
God’s love for us knows no bounds…
He is our heavenly Father. He’s a good God. He values and loves us to a depth and a degree that our minds can’t comprehend. But yet we stir our consciousness up. We remind ourselves. We continue to seek and ask for wisdom and insight and understanding. “Lord, help me to see myself as you see me.” That is so much of gaining victory over the enemy is allowing God to influence and invade your perspective so that we see as He sees. We see from a standpoint… and especially as intercessors, as pray-ers, God wants to continually inform us on the inside. He wants to continually shed light and truth at our core and help us to see we are truly the sons and daughters of the most high God. That we are of great worth and great value. That the depth of God’s love for you personally knows no limits, knows no boundaries, knows no end. So much so that He went ahead of you millennia before to prepare the way for your life and your journey down here. And of course, the one to come.
We’re in kindergarten, as I say, down here. But God has already mapped out a path. He loves you so much. Your value and worth is so great that He has mapped out a path ahead of you for today, for tomorrow, for next week, for next year, if time should continue in this dispensation. He knows the way forward.
I had a moment yesterday…
And I was reminded of that last night. I’ll just be vulnerable. I had a moment yesterday where I was dealing with some circumstances and situations and I found myself stressing out. I had allowed the enemy to kind of take my peace a little bit. I was stressing out about some situations because I became captivated by the circumstances that were unfolding and the situation that was out of my control and the deal that I couldn’t do anything about. And that may be true. I couldn’t do anything about certain things. You may not be able to do certain things and have any influence about a situation in the natural, but there are some things that we have been empowered to be able to do, and that starts with our perspective, our mindset, refusing to let the enemy take our peace, refusing to let the enemy have the greatest influence on our intellect and on our perspective.
Scripture’s really clear. God has promised that He will deliver us from all our troubles if we will but learn to stand still and see the might and the glory and the faithfulness and the depths of God’s love working on our behalf. Times like this of worship, whether you’re by yourself or in a gathering such as this online or in this chapel, are moments of great worth to the Father.
I’m trying to figure this out…
The Bible reveals that one of God’s kingdom ways is that as we wait, He’s enabled to work. So for me last night, I had to like, wait, wait… I had to realize, oh my gosh, my heart’s beating faster. I’m stressing out. My palms are sweating a little bit. Like, what is going on? I’m trying to figure this out. I’m trying to reason this situation out. I’m thinking, “Well, if I just call so-and-so and just kind of have a come-to-Jesus conversation, maybe they’ll realize some things.” I’m a communicator, so I want to speak to impact and even with situations that I ought not to speak into. And it takes a lot of faith to restrain yourself and just like, “Okay, Lord, right now, I’m stressed out. I cannot say anything to this person because I’ll do it out of my flesh, and I don’t want to have an Ishmael.”
Our job is to trust and rest…
God wants and is working, but our job is to rest and trust.
And as brother Hagin once prophesied, go with the flow of the Spirit. Yes, there are times when you step out and you definitely activate in the natural and you do certain things as a pray-er, as a believer. But our highest call and our primary mandate on a day-to-day basis is what the Bible describes as “to labor therefore to enter into the rest of God.”
I just had to repent of my human reasoning…
In that moment yesterday, I had to just repent and say, “Lord, I’m sorry.” I got in my mind. I got in my human reasoning. I tried to figure it out. I was thinking about making several phone calls. And sometimes maybe you need to. But I knew that wasn’t the thing to do, that I was going to do something out of what my reasoning was telling me. But my heart, the central core of my being, the part of me that should be leading my life was telling me, “No, Ken, you need to just let it go. You need to repent. Because anything that is not of faith is sin. So, I’m sorry for getting stressed out. Stretched out in my thinking. Trying to work this thing out. I just repent of that and I just reset my focus on you. I turn that situation over to you.
And can I just say too…
That some situations or people you’re believing for in God to be saved or whatever… His timing is different than our timing. And even in the midst of a battle or contrary circumstances or things not going right and things going left when they should go right, I mean, day after day, week after week, even month after month, perhaps even year after year, that even in that, we can find a place of rest and trust, knowing that God has marked moments where things are going to shift.
But all along, He’s working in people’s hearts. He’s working behind the scenes. He’s working in your finances. He’s working in your body. And He reminds us “Rest, My son, My daughter. Lean into Me.” Become captivated with My faithfulness with a narrative of scripture and how it describes time and time again how God came through for His people. How God brought down those mighty walls of Jericho. How He routed and drowned the Egyptian army that was in hot pursuit of the children of Israel. How He had laid down an intricate and detailed ways of plan down through the millennia to bring the Son of God into the earth. Going even back to the ark, the devil tried to corrupt the bloodline of humanity so that Jesus couldn’t enter it. Because Jesus had to be born of a woman. He had to be fully human to do the work that He needed to do to pay for our redemption. And the enemy was seeking to corrupt the bloodlines, so much so that it would’ve been impossible to get Jesus into the earth because it would’ve been corrupted by evil bloodlines.
God had a plan all along…
But God had a plan with an ark all along. Something had never been heard of before. Well, rain hadn’t been heard of before actually at that point because the Bible describes that the earth was watered from a mist and from beneath, kind of sub irrigation. But all along God had a plan for Noah to build that ark.
God has a plan. You may not be able to comprehend it or see it right now. You may not know the way forward, but God has an ark. He has something that you have not seen… eye hasn’t seen, ear hasn’t heard, neither has entered into your heart what is going to be the pathway out, that is going to be and represent a breakthrough, that is going to cause the attack of the enemy to expire.
God’s goodness knows no end…
Every evil work in our lives has an expiration date. God’s plan and God’s goodness and God’s promise knows no end… does not come to an end. His Word will live on even into the next age. He holds all things together by the word of His power.
Let your heart be reset to focus on Him…
So I just encourage you this morning to let your heart be reset, to focus on Him. Even if it’s been years and nothing has transpired, the dream hasn’t been realized. Whatever that is that He dropped into your heart, whatever you see as the future and what God intends for you and yours, as intercessors stay in there. Continue to stand between the problem and the promise and know that God is working. He will not be denied, right? Whatever you sow, you will reap. And your restfulness and your trustfulness, if you will, in that you’re sowing. In that, you’re allowing God to fight the battles that need to be fought for you…
Phil. 4:6…
The Bible reads in Philippians 4, kind of a classic verse on worry. “What are you talking about, Pastor Ken? I don’t worry. What’s that?”
Well, if you’re human you’ve encountered worry. If you live today, there will be opportunities to resist worry. And in Philippians 4:6, from the Passion translation, it says, “Don’t be pulled in different directions or worried about a thing. Instead, be saturated in prayer throughout each day, offering your faith-filled requests before God with overflowing gratitude. Tell Him every detail of your life.”
Can I just say something? I’m just going to be really real with you. I think that’s a healthful, necessary, integral habit in our spiritual journey to process through things with the Lord: the good, the bad, and the ugly, as I say. Whether it’s on a walk around a lake in the dark, in your prayer closet at home, pacing your driveway, whatever or wherever you meet with God… meet with Him, talk with Him, be real with Him.
I did that recently…
I kind of challenged myself to “up” my journaling, and I would begin to journal and write out things that were going on, on the inside of me… to get it out. The Lord wants us to get it out, to process through things with Him, to talk to Him as if He is as real as the person next to you. Because He is! He’s more real. That’s an answer for some of us. He wants to lighten your load. He wants to take from us shame and regrets, frustrations, upset, and turmoil regarding unmet expectations to this point.
He wants to lift off the heavy weights…
If you have experienced those, He wants to lift off of us all the heavy weights and things that detour us and distract us, harass us. “So don’t be pulled in different directions or worried about a thing, but be saturated throughout your day, offering your faith-filled request before God with overflowing gratitude. Tell Him every detail of your life. Then God’s wonderful peace that transcends all human understanding will guard your heart and mind through Jesus Christ. Keep your thoughts fixed on all that is authentic and real, honorable and admirable, beautiful and respectful, pure and holy, merciful and kind. And fasten your thoughts on every glorious work of God, praising Him always.”
Amen. Thank you, Father.
There’s a little paragraph I want to read here that might fit here. Earlier this year in 2023, a prophet shared some thoughts and some inspiration by the Spirit. And they said this.
“This is a season [this year] of recovering all, as God divinely intervenes to restore lost finances, property, relationships, and other seemingly impossible situations. We are on the eve of the greatest demonstration of God’s power in the earth. This is what has been called the Saints Movement, where every-day ordinary Christians do extraordinary things. This power demonstration will capture the news and make headlines. Persecutions will arise against these moves of God and the leaders.”
And I would say everyday people, right? If you’re going to take a strong stand regarding the promise of God, regarding what could be and really should be in your life, persecutions, the harassment of the enemy will come. “But be of good cheer Jesus said, for I’ve overcome that. And He’s empowered us because He’s on the inside of us to stand up against that.”
Go another day, as I say. Just get up and we’re going to go another day. Our job isn’t to reason or figure it out. Our job is to open ourselves up and let Him fill us up, to be captivated, enthralled by what God has said He will do. Fight a good warfare with the Word of God. Speak the promise of God out over your life. Jot down what He speaks to your heart, what others have prophesied and said and wage a good warfare with that.
