Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Pastor Ken…
Prayer isn’t changing the mind of God. Prayer is engaging with the plan of God that it would be so. It’s like the great John Wesley long ago once said that it seems God can do nothing for humanity unless someone asks Him. That’s what we’re doing today. That’s what we do every day. That’s what you and I have the opportunity to do in our daily individual lives…
To engage with God
To assign His power
To release His purposes into the earth
To direct the flow of heaven into situations and into homes and into hearts and into nations and into circumstances that you’re aware of or the Lord directs you to pray about.
Hudson Taylor quote…
Hudson Taylor, the great British missionary to China, said, “It is possible to move the hearts of men and women through God by prayer alone.” That means that prayer is substantial. There is a reality to it. It’s not mouthing out hot air. No, it is being responsive to the coach of the Holy Spirit.
God is in you…
I was reminded of this this morning that God is coaching us in this hour to initiate divine transactions. He is coaching you and me right now in this collective gathering of prayer. But also as you go throughout your day and your week, God the Holy Spirit, who by the way, is co-equal with God the Father and God the Son. He’s part of that Godhead. So recognize that He carries the essence of God the Father and the heart of Jesus in the earth. And He lives and resides in us. Not just so that you can reference Him on occasion or get a goose pimple here and there. But God the Holy Spirit, if you profess the name of Jesus and you receive the work of redemption, He’s taken up residence and tabernacled Himself on the inside of you and me. That we would be the portable, movable presence of God in the earth. Wherever you go today, God is in you.
God the Holy Spirit is coaching you…
And God the Holy Spirit is right there coaching us not only in the decisions that must be made, not only in preparing you for something that you need to say, or a decision that needs to be made. The Bible says the Holy Spirit’s even able to show you things to come. And I’m recognizing and seeing that in this hour, God is causing the ministry of the Holy Spirit to take a more prominent place in the individual believer’s life, in the church’s life. So that we would more and more recognize it’s not us, it’s Him. It is He the Spirit of prayer, the divine coach who is prompting us, even when you’re on a walk on a trail or in your home going about domestic business, He is coaching us to initiate divine transactions because there’s a real weight and there’s a real purpose and there’s a real intention behind the words that you say under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. There’s a “prophetic-ness” about them. They initiate heaven’s work in the earth. They initiate heaven’s work in a heart. They initiate heaven’s work to produce a supernatural effect in a body, in a broken soul, in disjointed emotions, in someone who deals with trauma—ADHD, or a physical disease.
The power of God is fully available. And God’s Word declares clearly that His hand has not shortened. It is fully extended to humanity to fulfill His purpose and to even wrap it up or culminate the end of the age with a great flourishing finish, even greater than what we read about in the book of Acts.
Real power behind your words…
So, understand that there is real weight and real substance and real power… Oh! That’s a word this morning. Come on now! There is real power behind your words of faith. There is a real release of the intentionality of God’s heart and His anointing that comes with your engaging in prayer in the spirit. Your faith decrees release the hand and the power of God. They literally assign the power of God to a situation.
“But, Ken, I’ve done that, and I didn’t see any change.”
Well, when was the last time you read in the Bible you’re supposed to live by what you see. We live by what we believe. In Him, we live and move and have our being for we are truly the offspring, the sons and daughters of the most high God. We live by what we believe, not necessarily what we see.
Shut the door on the enemy…
So it’s time to shut the door. The devil…. Let me just sober you up here a little bit. It’s time to shut the door on anything the enemy is doing to steal from us. Because he is going after people with open doors in their lives.
Open doors of doubt
Open doors of sin
Open doors of whatever it might be…
That’s between you and the Lord, and He’s able to convict you and show you. I heard that recently from someone. I’m like, ”Oh wow, that just speaks to me.” He’s going after people with open doors. Because he doesn’t want you to be coached into speaking words of consequence. He doesn’t want the Holy Spirit coaching you to initiate divine transactions. Because the truth be told, the devil is fearful of the prayer you are about to pray today. He is fearful about you hearing that Spirit of prayer, the Holy Spirit on the inside saying, “This is the way. Walk in it.” Or “This is the prayer. Say this.” Or “Declare this.” Or “Bind this and loose that.” The prayer of binding and loosing.
He’s given you the upper hand…
Clearly there was something in the mind of God that He had planned for us and wanted us to take full advantage of when He went through His work of redemption. That would give us the upper hand. That would enable us to win every time over the enemy of our souls. Not because of us and our limited ability. But because of what He did for us and what He released toward us.
Do not give place to the devil…
Let me just remind you of a couple of passages here in the New Testament. First of all, just to reference that open door comment, it’s true the devil is going after more than ever because he knows his time is short. He’s going after anyone who has an open door. I’ll remind you that Ephesians chapter four says, “Do not give place to the devil.” That means don’t even give him a cracked door. Slam the door that you know is open in your life. No matter how small or insignificant it may appear to be. Close that door!
We live in the days of great consequence and great purpose and great power. And if you’re going to step up and respond to the invitation… I sensed that this morning as we worshiped. The Lord… it’s almost like I can see Him extending an invitation and beckoning us. “Hey, come up. I have a promotion for you. I have a new place planned for you of liberty and joy and prosperity… a place of anointing and functioning in your calling that you have yet to realize… a promotion of sorts.”
The enemy works to dilute our effectiveness…
But first, we’ve got to close the door. Because the enemy works to dilute our effectiveness. He works to blind us to the truth. He works to get us into condemnation so that we don’t pray. And we don’t vocalize boldly and without reservation on a given day the Word of God, or exercise our authority. We need to be in a place in this hour where we are unreserved when it comes to our boldness of faith. Where we’re definitely not thinking about drawing back, but we’re at a moment’s notice, ready in season and out of season to speak a word, to send the enemy fleeing and running from us. Not, “Oh, I don’t know. I haven’t been really responding to God lately. So I don’t know if I can do that or not.” No! Close the door and let’s go on with God. Don’t give the devil a foothold, a place in your life.
Resist the devil and he will flee from you…
Also, over in James chapter four, it says, “He gives more grace. Therefore, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore, submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” So clearly there’s something God has put into your life that gives you the ability to send this enemy, this ancient one who seeks to deceive the nations, you can send him fleeing from your life, from your soul, from your household, from your situations. If you will submit yourself to God, resist the devil, and it says He will flee from you.
Jesus gave all authority to you…
Then in Matthew 28, we read some words from Jesus. It says in verse 18, “And Jesus came and spoke to them saying, All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go.” He’s basically saying, “I’m delegating that authority to you. So go in that authority. Use My power purposefully.” Don’t be ignorant of it. Don’t be flippant or casual about it. Use it intentionally and purposely in your words, in your activity, in your praying.
That authority includes trampling on serpents and scorpions…
And then Luke 10:18 says, “And He said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” Verse 19 says, Jesus to us to this day still saying, “Behold, I give you authority to trample on serpents and scorpions.” That’s the demonic kingdom. “And over all the power of the enemy. And nothing shall by any means hurt you.” Nothing shall by any means hurt you.
We have the keys of the kingdom to bind and to loose…
And then Matthew 16:19 says, “And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. And whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
Quote on prayer…
Let me read this to you. I may have shared this before, but I wanted to read it again. Just put some different language around prayer. I believe God wants us to see prayer differently, wants to us to see our opportunity to speak and to engage and collaborate with God differently. Somebody put it this way one time:
“Prayers interface with the physical realm where spiritual energy is converted into tangible effects in the material world. Prayer is not just asking for things but participating in the fundamental creative force in the spiritual and natural realms.”
So prayer is creative, in other words.
“Different kinds of prayer produce different kinds of results. For example, the prayer of agreement, collective prayer. When multiple people pray for the same thing, their prayer energies will be intertwined and amplify each other, creating a powerful resonance pattern that can literally move mountains.”
Interesting. Huh?
“Collective prayer generates power and opens channels for divine intervention in ways individual prayers sometimes cannot.”
We must not depend on man’s machinery…
And, perhaps I emphasize the importance and the call to the place of prayer so often because in our day and age, we lean—including in the church—too much upon man’s machinery and ability to organize and technology. While it’s all great and I believe at the root, it’s inspired by God, much of it, the truth of the matter is God always intended that we would be an intimate and supernatural conversation and collaboration with Him through the Holy Spirit. That the outworking of the plan of God and the power of God and change that needs to occur in our world, even the rerouting of nations and situations to align with what God intends and what God has prophesied, that that would be a result of our partnership with Him… of us being yielded and surrendered to Him. So much so that it is the Holy Spirit who perpetually takes a higher position and place of prominence in our lives. So that we stop asking, “Lord, where is my answer.” “Lord, where is my healing?” “Lord, where is my blessing?” in some way.
Let’s ask Him what His plan is…
Instead shift from asking those kinds of questions to asking, “Lord, what are you up to today?” “How do you want us to pray today?” “What do you want me to focus on for you today?” There is a plan that is already blessed, that’s already been organized and worked out and provided for. That’s what we must ask. “Lord, what are you up to? What’s your plan today? Not my wheel, Lord, but yours. Let that be done.”
That’s a good thought, isn’t it? Just take a deep breath and exhaust the toxicity of worry and exhaust out of your mouth with a deep breath and an exhale the toxicity of fretting and wondering and angst and stress and whatever it might be trying to distract you and suck the energy of life out of you.
He’s wants you to give your all to Him…
And just draw a fresh breath of understanding that He’s already worked out that situation for you. You don’t have to work it out. He never asked you and I to work it out. He simply asked us to give our all to Him, to surrender to Him, to take up our cross and follow Him, to be sponges literally for His presence. And to say, “Today is a beautiful day because this is not only the day the Lord hath made, but this is the day I get to redeem my time and use it wisely. I get to redeem some of my time and talk to my Father and get to know Him more and for Him to know me.”
You mustn’t do it in your own ability…
He’s not in a hurry. He’s never in a hurry. So why are we in a hurry? Why are we all bent out of shape and stressed out of our minds? No. I think oftentimes when you’re in that place of being stressed out of your mind and frantic and frenetic in your activity, that’s a clear sign you’re in your flesh. You’re in your own ability. And God is saying, “No, no. You need to come apart.”
Quote…
Someone, a great author of prayer in the 19th century said something to the effect of, “We need to come apart and be with Jesus before we literally come apart.” I think in those moments, God is saying, “You need to rest. You need to join your life with Mine and learn how I do it.”
Isn’t that what He said in the Gospel? “Yolk yourself with Me.” It means join your life with Mine. That’s your priority on your day’s agenda today, is to join your life with His. Yes, His Spirit’s always there and He doesn’t retract His Holy Spirit. But there is an assignment on our lives each day to join ourselves, to seek Him, to cultivate His presence, to be a student of His Word, to be one who sits at times, even in moments of silence and solitude waiting on Him.
There’s a beautifulness and there is a practice of waiting on Him. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. I don’t remember the exact reference, but the Bible says He literally works when we wait. How do we reconcile or wrap our thoughts… You can’t wrap your thoughts around that. God’s ways are higher than yours or my ways. He has agendas and ways of doing things that supersede your intellect right now. So just trust Him that if His Word says so, then it must be so.
Go with His Word!
