Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Pastor Ken…
Welcome to morning prayer!
Listen to this. In the Living Bible, Colossians 2:6–10 states, “And now just as you trusted Christ to save you,” [you could say deliver you, to set you free] “trust him, too, for each day’s problems; live in vital union with him.” In other words, live in relationship. Not just occasionally, or accidentally, but be decisive, determined, persistent to join your life with His.
We must learn how to synchronize ourselves with the unforced rhythms of His grace and goodness…
Jesus, in fact, said that in the Gospels. He says, “Join your life with mine. Learn how I do it.” Learn to synchronize yourself with the, as The Message Bible says, “The unforced rhythms of His grace and His goodness.”
It goes on to say, “Let your roots grow down into him and draw up nourishment from him. See that you go on growing in the Lord, and become strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught. Let your lives overflow with joy and thanksgiving for all he has done. 8 Don’t let others spoil your faith and joy with their philosophies, their wrong and shallow answers built on men’s thoughts and ideas, instead of on what Christ has said. 9 For in Christ there is all of God in a human body; 10 so you have everything when you have Christ,”
We have everything when we have Christ…
Just let that soak in this morning. You have everything when you have Christ. If you have Jesus, if you’ve invited Him into your life… and if you haven’t, you can do so right now. Just simply say, “Lord, I invite you into my life. I choose to believe on you and the work you did on my behalf. I confess that I’ve failed and fallen short of the glory of God, but I’m glad that I can become a part of you. You can be in me, and I can be in you.”
So it says, once again, in Colossians 2:9, “For in Christ there is all of God in a human body; 10 so you have everything when you have Christ, and you are filled with God through your union with Christ. He is the highest Ruler, with authority over every other power.”
We’re in Him and He’s in us…
If you’re in Him and He’s in you, that means we have authority, the right to exercise power, the right to rule and reign, the right to run the enemy out of our lives, out of situations, out of our nation if we’ll pray together. Because we’re in Him and He’s in us.
Jesus stated in John 15, “Abide in me, and let my words abide in you.” In other words, live in union with Him, and let Him live in union with you.
Jesus, in one passage in the Gospels, declared, “I am in the Father, and the Father is in me.” Well, guess what? If you profess Jesus, then you’re in Him, and He’s in you. You’re equipped. You’re well able. You’re a recipient for His goodness.
Personal reflection: knowing that God is good…
I have to say, as I reflect back just for a moment this morning, even as a young person, 6, 8, 10, 12 years old, I remember, for whatever reason, I had the idea and the understanding, perhaps I got it from my mother or my grandfather, I don’t know, that God was good. That He wasn’t a mean cosmic ogre waiting to correct me for the slightest infraction, but rather He was a good, loving, heavenly, doting Father.
And don’t you know, He’s still a good, loving, patient, kind, merciful, generous, forgiving Heavenly Father today? The one you’re united with, the one I’m united with.
Pastor Lynne teaches that God leans on the side of mercy and grace…
Pastor Lynne reminded us the other day, “Understand this, that God leans on the side of mercy and grace and goodness.” Scripture records that He desires mercy over judgment. In fact, judgment is out of the ordinary for Him. It’s something He doesn’t like to do and doesn’t want to do and is the last resort when it’s the most merciful thing, honestly, to do at that point.
God is in the business of showing kindness…
But until then, in our lives, in our nations, in our households and families, He desires goodness and mercy. He’s in the business of showing His kindness. And He wants to be as good and merciful and generous to every single person, honestly, on the planet. If we’ll believe. Not everybody is blessed equally. God’s will is that everybody be blessed above and beyond what we can ask or think, beyond our highest hopes, imaginations, and even dreams according to Ephesians. But not everybody is blessed to that level. Not everybody goes from glory to glory, from victory to victory.
Why?
Well, there’s many reasons. One: wrong thinking. We think incorrectly about God, about ourselves, about our enemy. They’re not in the right place and position. We see ourselves maybe in a low position when really we’ve been exalted in Christ. We’ve been created in His class. We’re not God, we’re not Christ, but we’re sons and daughters. We’re a part of the family. We’ve entered into a covenant with Him, an agreement with Him, that promises that we have an equal position and possession with Jesus Christ. And can function as He functions, as a creative human spirit who can decree a thing and see it established. Who can believe in accordance or in agreement or alignment with His Word and see the revelation of that promise, the provision of that promise materialize as we journey through life. Whether it’s finances, a change in our families, our relationships, our ministries, the fulfillment of dreams.
God has a blessed plan for us today…
God has a plan today. And His plan is good. He has a plan that He is desiring to bring to the next level in each of our lives and churches. And it is blessed, and strategic, and set up to succeed and not fail.
“Oh, but, Ken, I’ve had some things that have failed.”
Keep your dreams in His hands…
Don’t worry about that. Don’t concern yourself about that. Just keep that on the shelf. If it’s a dream, it’s still in your heart. Just keep it in His hands. Our job is just to follow Him, to continue journeying to know Him, and discover the reality of His redemptive work for us. And then trust the definition of success or what the will of God looks like, not to our preconceived ideas, but trust Him that it’ll look like what He had in mind when He and the whole Godhead—the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit—got together in the dateless past to conceive a plan for your life and my life. And then author it in a book of destiny that’s in the libraries of heaven for each one of us individually. It’s still there. And His plan is still to bring it to a flourishing finish. Every aspect of your dream of God’s plan for your life and your future, it’s still there. It’s still in play. God is still bringing it about.
But He needs us to believe that He is good, that we’ve not fallen too far short, that Jesus came to make up the difference, that Jesus came to change everything, to change our condition. So that we could have a new connection with the Father. And as a result of that union, that connection, as we read it in Colossians 2, heaven would flow into our lives on a daily basis—
Bringing change
Bringing strategy
Bringing wisdom
Bringing resource
Bringing a fresh supply in every season and every situation.
We can step forward into a new era and season…
So we don’t have to live in a low place or stay in our past. But we can step forward into a new era and a new season. I quote this often, but the Bible still proclaims, the last time I checked, He said, “Will you not be aware that you are entering into a new season, that I am doing something new?”
The past is gone.
The new has come.
We have a will…
His mercy is new toward you this morning, regardless of what you’ve done, regardless of how you feel. That’s the beautiful thing about having a will. Unlike every other aspect or created thing in the world, we have a will. That means we can leverage it and use it to believe and to do regardless of how we feel. We can walk by faith and not by sight. The beautiful thing about that is in the course of time and as we take steps, how we feel changes. What we see changes.
Glory to God. He is merciful. He is kind.
God loves to redeem, so lean toward mercy and grace in your praying…
So even in your praying, lean toward praying for mercy and grace and for God’s goodness and redemption. He loves to redeem. The Godhead is energized and grows stronger still, when they get a chance to redeem, to transform, to heal, to minister, to download something fresh into your soul today. So you don’t go alone today. But you go with God, with a fresh supply.
God showed up in our pastors’ meeting…
I was in a meeting yesterday with a group of our pastors which I lead. I set the agenda not to do any training or have a bunch of people speak to inform, but just to check in with the pastoral team, and just to give space and place for God the Holy Spirit. And through a number of things, God just began to show up. Nothing of our doing. God just showed up in our pastors. And it was such an inundation, invasion of sorts, of the presence of God in that meeting of about 20 pastors. And God just began to work in souls and hearts and minds and lives, to minister, to refresh, to change, to strengthen, to be good and graceful and merciful toward us.
I believe He’s doing that in your home, in your heart today, right now. Not because you showed up to pray and do a work for God. It’s not a bad thing. Just because He’s gracious and good and wants you to have more of Him.
Know this: He wants you to have more of Him.
More and more and more. There is no limit. There is no end to His goodness, His mercifulness. Just shake off whatever has bogged you down, whatever’s got you stuck in a rut, whatever is harassing you in your mentality. And begin to acknowledge Him. It all starts by acknowledging Him on a day-to-day basis. Seeing His presence, seeing His hand, seeing yourself in His Word. Find yourself in His Word and see Him in your everyday life. And say, “Lord, I see you. Thank you for your presence.”
You may have nothing to thank Him for in how you feel in the moment, but you can say, “Lord, thank you that your presence is within me. I’m in union with you.”
Jesus didn’t turn to His humanity when He faced challenges in His earthly ministry. He turned to His oneness with His Father. Everything that God wants to do is preceded by oneness with the Father. It is us being one, us being intentional and joining our lives with Him in our acknowledgement, in our worship, in our prayers, in our silence, in our solitude, in our study before Him, engaging with Him in our day-to-day lives.
That’s what sets us up to succeed.
That’s what sets us up to go from one degree of glory to another.
That’s what will set you up to rise and thrive in this new season and what God is doing in your life.
God is doing something new…
Make no mistake about it, God is doing something new. Say “No” to the discouragement. Everybody deals with that. I don’t care who you are—President Trump, Pastor Mac, you name it. No matter what your lot or station in life, everybody deals with the enemy’s harassing thoughts and those feelings that come from time to time.
But, once again, you have a will. You can say, “No, I’m not going that way today, Mr. Devil. I know you operate in the soulish realm. I know you operate in this natural realm. But I’m going to live from the spirit realm today, from the revelation of the Word of God, that I’m in Him and He’s in me. And He set me up to succeed, not just in my praying, but in my everyday doing what I’m called to do life. And I’m not going to be discouraged. I’m not going to be denied. I’m not going to bow to this world or the spirit of this world, nor even what I’ve experienced in my past. I step out of my past and into this present time where He is doing something new.”
Through Jesus, God made a way for you to be changed…
God paid through His Son a high price to make a way for you to be changed in your condition once again, that you might be inhabited by His very presence. I know that’s something we know, and it’s simple, but it’s something we need to be reminded and prodded and stirred up about, that it’s His presence within us that is the great difference-maker. It is the aura of God the Holy Spirit, who has chosen to take up residence in us because of the blood of Jesus and the work of the cross. So that we could go around not just by our lonely selves doing what we do in life or ministry, but we can go around joined with Him, in union with Him, one with Him, able to face the world, able to face darkness, able to face challenges, able to face a negative doctor’s report and look it in the eye and say, “This too will pass. This too will be transformed. This too will change and will not remain.”
You’re called to change the course of history. We’re called to shift the course of what’s going on in our individual lives so that it begins more and more to align with what God has in mind. That it begins to align and synchronize with what God has stated in your book of destiny and in His Word.
