Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Pastor Ken…
Good morning, everyone.
You’re invited to our Easter services…
I want to make an announcement. If you haven’t noticed, it is Easter Sunday this coming weekend. I want to encourage you to consider being a part of our services here at Living Word if you can in person. Or join us online. Our services will be Saturday night, 5 p.m., here at Living Word or online. Or Sunday morning 9 and 11:15 a.m. Our start time for our second service has been pushed back an extra 15 minutes just to give us more time and space to transition from one service to another because we know our house will be packed from service to service this weekend. If you are planning on coming, I want to challenge everyone to be prayerful about who you are going to bring with you. Who are you going to share or invite Easter service this weekend. So I just challenged you with that this morning.
It’s time for the Church to rise and shine…
Isaiah 60:1 states “Arise, shine for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth and deep darkness the people. But the Lord will arise.”
Can somebody say “arise” this morning?
But the Lord will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you. That’s not just generic. That’s you. That’s me. The glory of God will be seen upon us in this hour. Can I just prophesy for a moment? And His glory shall be seen upon you. The Gentile shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising.
Can I just ask a question this morning to start off with?
Do you know what’s coming?
Do you know what’s presently unfolding?
I think oftentimes God’s greatest task with His people is to stretch our capacity to believe, to enlarge our thinking so that we can hope and expect and believe and pray. Because what is coming and what is even now unfolding on planet earth is so far and above what we can ask or think.
And I love this passage in Isaiah because it highlights the… really, it’s a prophetic passage, I believe, for this moment in the timetable of God’s great plan. That while there is darkness and chaos and craziness and ominousness on the horizon in many ways, whether it be wars and rumors of wars or economic uncertainty, clearly the world is in convulsions. Which, if you want to understand what that means, go back and read Matthew 24 for the year 2024. And you’ll see that we are in a phase where the world is literally convulsing and we will continue to see that.
There will be a dichotomy…
But the Bible is clear and prophetic words that have come down through the years that there will be a dichotomy. There will be two things happening at once. And that is what’s stated here in Isaiah 60. That while there is darkness upon the earth and the enemy is rampant in his many ways and plans. Ultimately, every weapon formed against the church, against you and me, will not prosper. Because His glory is arising. And what’s needed in this time for the State of Minnesota and what we’re dealing with in our own legislature, what we’re dealing with in Washington, DC, what we’re going to be seeing in this next election cycle…
I heard that more abortions were performed in the United States in 2023 than in any other year previously. That is not a good stat to be proud of. It’s horrible. We’re seeing death in so many ways in our own country and across the world. And so as a result, what’s going to be required to turn this thing, for God to wrap up His end time plan for the harvest to come in, for lives to be transformed and changed, it’s not going to be church as usual. Or just our little kneel before a bed, “Now I lay me down to sleep” or whatever that prayer is that we prayed as a child. That’s not what it’s going to take.
What is needed is something far and above our natural ability to affect change. What’s needed is the glory of God to move in and to multiply and overflow in such a way that it overtakes every enemy stronghold and everything that is dark and foreboding in this hour and to shift things in the direction that God intends. Which is much like what happened in the first century Church.
That while it was dark and difficult and oppressive and there was persecution on every side, yet the church swelled and multiplied and grew. The Roman Empire could not get their hand around that early band of followers called The Way because the glory of God was risen upon those first century disciples and followers. And the glory had moved in so much so that it inhabited their services and their preaching and their everyday going to the market and doing what they did in their homes and with their family’s life. It changed everything.
Modern day outpouring—Azusa Street Revival…
And so that’s what happened in the modern day outpouring of God’s glory in the Holy Spirit at Azusa Street. Signs and wonders, people speaking in tongues, displays of holy fire were seen by those far from Jesus and reported in the Los Angeles times. What was happening night after night, day after day, even in the wee hours of the morning on Azusa Street?
Do you know what’s coming?
Are you prepared?
Are you ready?
Are you giving the Holy Spirit permission to prepare you, to expand you, to enlarge you, to carry and walk in and be ready to respond to what is coming? Hallelujah! Glory to God!
We need what is coming…
I think I’m sharing this because one of the specific words that came to us through the Prayer and Presence Conference was that we are in the earth to release God’s plan and to move it forward through prayer. God wants us to grab hold of the fact that He wants the whole world saved. He wants us to grab hold with our prayers and expectation and even our thoughts that the glory of God is going to be what changes everything… not another initiative or program or another well-articulated message from the pulpit or a new social media platform where you’re pumping out Christian content. That may be good, but we need God and His glory to be poured out as it was prophesied in the book of Joel, as it has been decreed through the mouths of many prophets through the years that it would be the former and the latter reign of God coming together, bringing in its wake signs and wonders and miracles, baptisms of holy fire, salvations too numerous to even count, displays of creative miracles, restored lives in a moment.
Experiences, I believe reported on Instagram and Facebook and TikTok that indicate people down the road blocks and maybe miles away not even knowledgeable of the Gospel sense the fire and the convicting force of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Do you know what’s coming?
Do you know your assignment and your position and how you ought to posture and live in this moment in history that you’re not a coincidence. You are assigned and birthed into the earth for such a time as this. And maybe to expand your heart a little bit, let me just share a couple more things with you this morning.
Evan Roberts, leader of the Welsh Revival…
I love, by the way, what Evan Roberts, who was one of the key leaders of the Welsh revival many, many years ago said to a man by the name of Frank Bartleman, who was an associate and key person in the Azusa Street Revival in the early part of the 20th century. Evan Roberts wrote Frank Bartleman before the outpouring at Azusa Street and said, “Meet every day, no matter what. And expect the glory.”
And maybe we’re not meeting every single day here. We are most days. But whenever we meet in prayer, in church with one other person to pray, God wants our posture and our attitude and our mindset to be, “Lord, I’m expecting your glory. We need your glory. I need your glory in my finances. I need your glory in my family, my children’s lives. We need your glory in our church.”
A new smoke machine, a new church growth strategy… those may be good. I’m not downplaying those, but that’s not what’s going to get the job done what God has in mind. That’s not what’s going to wrap up the age, that’s not going to be the solution to the unprecedented problems we face.
It is going to be us calling out, us expecting, us agreeing and believing that we will see the goodness and the glory of God in our lifetime, in our generation, in our nation, in our church, in our community.
Do you know what’s coming?
Do you know what’s been prophesied?
Do you know that you’re called to be a part of it?
Do you know we’re at and maybe even on the threshold of this?
This is a threshold moment…
It’s not church as usual. I know there are things that are repetitive and monotonous that we do every day. We have to brush our teeth. We have to get ready to go to work or do whatever we do, pay our bills. That may be, but let’s have an expectation. Let’s be forward leaning… that today I’m going to see the glory of God. I expect it.
The Bible reveals that we’re to have an earnest expectation, that we’re to be the most hope-filled people on the planet because Jesus lives inside of us. Because God the Holy Spirit has partnered and taken up residence on inside of us if we profess His name.
And as a result, we can have hope. And the Bible reveals that hope has an outstretched neck. Its neck is craning. You’re on the edge of your seat. It’s not something that maybe comes naturally in our humanity or our flesh. But once again, we have a will. So leverage your will to choose that “today I’m going to get up on the edge of my seat. I’m going to crane my neck. I’m going to have a forward-leaning earnest expectation that I’m going to see the goodness of God today in this prayer meeting, in my family today.”
“Well, Ken, what if it doesn’t happen by the end of the day?”
No matter. We’re not moved by that. We’re not moved by what we see or feel or some fleeting emotion or past remembrance of what didn’t happen or what went unmet in our expectations. Our expectation is in God and in the inerrancy of His Word. But He is what He says He is and that we have seen in our past Him perform time and time again, His faithfulness personally and collectively. And that He will do it again. In fact, He has something far greater in magnitude than we have yet to realize.
Do you know what’s coming?
Are you ready?
Are you prepared?
Are you living with an outstretched craning neck of hope, looking for that glory in that situation?
Kind of like Jeannie said on Monday, maybe you’ve let go of some things or you’ve allowed some things to fall to the wayside. A belief in the promise of God for your life, a change in your family, a promotion in your calling in some way, your business, your job, your finances, healing for your body, transformation for your soul. And just because of the course of time you’ve let it go. It’s fallen by the wayside.
And God, once again, today is saying, “pick that up.” Pick up hope and earnest expectation of a preferred future based on the Word and will of God. And believe again… and hope again… and expect again… and say again that today this will work out for my advantage. God is coming through.
The Bible says in Mark 11:24…
When you pray, believe that you receive and then you will see. We’re a people called to a higher standard, not just a standard like, “Well, one day, Ken, maybe I’ll see the answer to my prayer.” No! We believe we receive it today. We believe the glory of God is filling the earth, filling our households and our homes and our churches and our nation in the State of Minnesota today in Jesus’ name. Come on now!
The kingdom of God suffereth violence, but the violent take the promise of God and the glory of God by force. Hallelujah. So the glory of God is coming to America. Without it, there’s no hope… or hope for the world for that matter.
Do you realize that?
That’s why we contend and pray for the glory and prophesy and teach about the glory of God. Because in its wake comes every godly and good gift that’s able to transform a human heart in an instant and raise the dead with a word and cause people to be convicted who have never been in a church to repent of their sins without even a preacher. Amen.
William Seymore of the Azusa Street Revival…
So let me just share something with you quickly. It is the account of the Azusa Street outpouring, at least a portion of it. There’s many stories and accounts. But this has to do with William Seymour, who was a key leader in that. One of them, anyway. And in this book entitled “2000 Years of Charismatic Christianity” by Eddie Hyatt, he writes, “William Seymour was consumed with a passionate desire for God. Seymour wrote, ‘Before I met Perham, who was a predecessor of Seymour, such a hunger to have more of God was in my heart, that I prayed for five hours a day, for two and a half years.”
Are you there yet?
Let me just ask. I don’t know that I’m there yet. But that’s hunger.
Seymour went out to Los Angeles. “And there the hunger was not less, but more. I prayed, ‘God, what can I do?’ The Spirit said, ‘Pray more.’ ‘But, Lord, I’m praying five hours a day now.’ I increased my hours of prayer to seven. And prayed on for a year and a half more. I prayed to God to give me what Perham preached, the real Holy Ghost.”
So this was before the modern day outpouring, just at that threshold moment before it was to happen.
“That He would give me the real Holy Ghost and fire with tongues, with love and power of God like the apostles had. Before the courses were complete,” these were courses that Seymour took under Charles Parham.
“Seymour received a letter from Los Angeles inviting him to pastor a newly formed Holiness congregation. Having prayed about the opportunity, he decided to accept. Perham provided Seymour his train fare and blessed him as he departed around the middle of February. In Los Angeles, Seymour preached his first sermon from Acts 2:4. And broached the subject of tongues as biblical evidence of Spirit baptism. When he returned from the evening service, he found the door padlocked (the church where he was preaching). Church officials found his message of spirit baptism evidence by speaking in tongues unacceptable.
“The Asburys who lived on Bonnie Bray Street then invited Seymour to their home where he gave himself to prayer almost constantly. While eating supper one evening during this time, Richard Asbury suddenly fell from his chair onto the floor and began speaking in tongues.
Soon others, including Seymour, were also experiencing the baptism in the Holy Ghost and speaking in other tongues. As word spread, the charismatic gifts were occurring on Bonnie Bray Street. Large crowds converged at the Asbury residence. Forced to seek larger facilities they found an empty building at 312 Azusa Street in downtown Los Angeles. Formerly, it had been a Methodist Episcopal church, but more recently had been used as a stable and warehouse. They removed the debris and installed rough plank benches and a makeshift pulpit made from wooden shoe boxes.
On April 14, 1906, they held their first services and revival fires blazed even more brightly. Someone’s account was that prayer seemed to have been the foremost activity at the Azusa mission. One participant said, “The whole place was steeped in prayer.” Seymour spent much of his time behind the pulpit with his head inside a shoebox praying. [He had a box on his head, basically a wooden box.] An unpretentious man, Seymour recognized his own need for continual guidance and strength of the Holy Spirit.”
Seymour spent much of his time behind the pulpit with his head inside a box praying. An unpretentious man, he recognized his own need for continual guidance and strength of the Holy Spirit. A contemporary John G Lake described him as a man of great spiritual power. God puts such a hunger into that man’s heart that when the fire of God came, it glorified Him.
In the natural realm at Azusa Street, there was more than one instance where the fire department came out to Azusa Street because it was reported that the building was on fire. Was it a natural fire? It was the fire of God come down from heaven upon a people who were hungry and thirsty and seeking the real and the authentic and the true living experience of God.
