Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Pastor Ken…
Well, hello everyone! Happy Wednesday and good morning. If you didn’t already know, my name is Ken Olson. I’m one of the pastors on staff here at Living Word, and it is super blessed on my part to be able to pray with y’all today.
Overflowing with a sense of destiny and certainness…
I want to read a couple of passages of scripture to you. Driving in this morning, I was overflowing with a sense of destiny, a sense certainness in the heart of God as far as what He intends to do in the earth in these last days. A sense of destiny for us as a church… for “the” church, for you and I individually, I believe.
The return of Jesus is imminent…
God’s Word is true. It’s reality and we’re seeing it unfold each and every day, even in the news in different ways if you’re paying attention. And I’m so glad I get to be here on the earth in this hour. I’m so glad that we get to participate in God’s end-time outpouring of His glory and the works of Jesus to wrap up the end of the age, aren’t you? I’m glad for that. I’m excited for that.
God is coming through for us at this hour…
We have nothing to fear, nothing to dread or be anxious about. Instead, the Lord is giving us permission and reminding us that our hearts can overflow with joy and gratitude and a certain faith-filled, hopeful expectation that God is coming through for you… for me… for the church in this hour. He will have His way. He will have His way in the earth. He’s willing that none should perish. He’s not about doom and gloom and “Oh, not on me.”
He is a God of salvation…
He made that really clear from the beginning of His Book to the end of His Book, through the exhibition and the display of His love and grace through Christ Jesus.
He is a God of salvation.
He is a God of new beginnings.
He is a God of hope.
Even in the hopelessness of life and challenges that we all go through and face at times, He is excited to repurpose that hopeless situation, that darkest hour of your life and soul and use it for His glory.
We see in Joseph that setbacks are often the solution…
I was thinking last night how so often the setbacks that we face in life that look like the end of us, or the death of us, in some way are really in God’s mind and from His perspective, a solution. I mean, think of Joseph. He was betrayed by his own brothers, cast into a pit, sold into slavery, betrayed by some of those that he was in prison with. He could have lost hope. He could have thought, “Well, maybe this dream God put in my heart isn’t to be so, isn’t to come to pass. Maybe there isn’t a God in heaven. Maybe I’m just, you know, a coincidence of biology in some way.”
Joseph stayed true to what God said…
But no, he held onto hope. He stayed true to what God had said. And in the course of time… That’s the thing that we have to apply our faith to—the course of time or in the passage of time. Yes, the enemy wages a war of attrition where he wants to wear us down. But faith is to be used in the passage of time where we don’t see anything happening, where our five physical senses can’t pick up on what God is doing. So we use our faith; we apply it to lean into His promises, to lean into what He’s spoken to our hearts, and to keep that in focus one day at a time.
“Okay, yeah, Lord, You said this about my health. You said this about my finances. You said this about my family. You spoke this to my heart long ago that I would step into such and such as my calling.”
Hold that close. Grow not weary in well doing.
Well doing is keeping His Word in focus…
Oftentimes in the passage of time well doing is keeping His Word and His promise in focus. Letting it be what you give your most attention to. There are many voices the Bible says in this world and all of them have a different degree of significance. But there’s only one voice of God the Holy Spirit. And His voice is loud and clear. His voice resonates to this day in His Word, in His Book.
Pastor Lynne likes to say…
“You want to hear His voice? Open His Book.” God opens His mouth when you open His Book. It starts there. Yes, even as pray-ers, you never get too spiritual to not need His Book. He sent His words specifically to you and me down through the ages. Penned by many who came before us, scribes and priests, that we would have a record of the works of Jesus, that we would have a record of His heart and His faithfulness down through the millennia, So that we as pray-ers and as believers could keep our hearts stirred in faith. Because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ, the Word of God.
You move forward to what you focus on…
Do you want to know what you’re moving toward? You’re moving toward what you’re focused on. Where is your attention today? It’s just a matter of time. Like Joseph, he went from the pit to prison. So it went from bad to worse. But he, by faith, stood the test of time. And it wasn’t but a matter of years later that he found himself in the palace, second in charge in all of Egypt. Second only to Pharaoh.
The setback was God’s solution in disguise…
He had a major setback for many years. And a major problem. That setback though was God’s solution in disguise. Because if you know the story in Genesis, you know that one day Joseph’s father sent some of his brothers who had kind of forgotten about him at that point to Egypt to ask for help and mercy because Joseph’s people, family, were starving in a time of famine.
Long story short, Joseph ended up being a solution to his very own household and nation. He went through a setback. He went through mistreatment. He went through betrayal. He went through the passage of time. But he passed the test of time. He did not grow weary in well doing. I’m sure he had his days. But he refused to relent.
A word came forth: Refuse to Relent!
So I just speak over you a word today. Refuse to relent! That means refuse to back off. Refuse to let yourself grow weary and want to raise up a white flag and say, “I surrender to the enemy.” No, no. We’re going to wrap up the end of the age with a flourishing finish. You are going to complete all of your course.
Can I just prophesy that over you? Like the Apostle Paul, you’re going to say one day…
“I’ve run my race.
I’ve kept the faith.
I’ve finished strong.
I’ve reflected God in my life.
And now I’m ready to be promoted to the next realm and to heavenly prizes and heavenly rewards.”
Brother Hagin says it pays to obey God…
You see, it pays to obey God. Brother Kenneth Hagin said that many years ago.
It doesn’t cost to stay in the plan of God.
It doesn’t cost to stay in the Word.
It doesn’t cost to come to morning prayer.
It doesn’t cost to do the right thing when the wrong thing is happening to you and be a person of integrity, a person of discipline, a person of perseverance.
No! That will pay. Godliness is highly profitable even in your personal life. And of course, in the greater plan of God. Okay.
Well, that’s just extra. So take that for yourself. Keep yourself stirred up in the faith. Keep yourself robustly filled with the Word of God. I find the more you give yourself to His words and the more you give yourself to time in His presence, the less I have to work, the less I have to strive. We’re not supposed to strive in our effort and our own ability anyway. But we are to labor, or to work, to enter into His rest.
Fight off the distractions…
I think Pastor Jim reminded of us of that this last weekend. Labor therefore to enter into rest. You got to fight off those distractions. You got to ward off those thoughts. “Well, I got to go turn the sprinkler on. I got to go pay that bill. I need to call so and so.” When you’re supposed to be giving yourself to time with the Lord. It all happens.
The enemy’s got no new devices or ways to temp us. It’s all the same. So you got to fight those distractions off so that we can spend time alone with Him. Because in doing so, things get easier. Things begin to flow. You begin to rest and trust and God begins to work to perform His plan for you. You don’t have to do it on your own. Yes, there are steps of obedience. But it’s not you, it’s Him that does the work.
As I quoted on Monday, this is the work of the kingdom the Bible reads “that you might believe.” Well, belief isn’t just a mental ascent to a scripture you once upon a time heard quoted. Belief is a choice to hear and feed on His Word. It’s a choice to obey and it produces great and marvelous results.
So I’m going to read a couple of passages of scripture and then we’re going to worship. Hallelujah.
Joel 2:28—I will pour out My Spirit…
Joel 2:28 reads, “And afterwards, I will pour out My spirit upon all flesh. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your old men shall dream dreams. Your young men shall see visions even upon your menservants and upon your maiden servants. In those days…” What days? These days! Do you believe that’s this day. “I will pour out My Spirit and I will show signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth. Blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.”
Acts 2:18–21…
It goes on to say in Acts 2:18–21. “Yes, on my maiden servants and on my men servants, in those days I will pour out of My Spirit and they shall prophesize.” You are the prophet of your own life and future. “And I will show wonders in the sky above and signs in the earth beneath; blood, fire, and smoking vapor. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the obvious day of the Lord comes. That great and notable and conspicuous and renowned day. And it shall be whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord invoking, adoring and worshiping the Lord shall be saved.”
Romans 8:18…
Paul writes in Romans 8:18, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time…” You could say the denial of myself, in different ways so that I can serve God, “are not worth being compared with the glory that is about to be revealed to us and in us and for us and conferred upon us.”
Psalm 1:26…
And then lastly in Psalm 1:26, “When the Lord brought back the captives…” Were you once a captive? I was, but the Lord brought me back. Amen. “Who returned to Zion. We were like those who dream, then our mouths filled with laughter and our tongues with singing. Then they said among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them.”
Lord, thank you for doing great things for us. Thank you for doing great things in America. I mean, every day I’m hearing great things that God is doing. Hallelujah. In revival, in awakening, even in our own government, our own leaders are praying in Jesus’ name before their meetings and our own White House, in our own government houses, many of them.
The Bible goes on to say in Psalm 1:26…
“The Lord has done great things for us. We are glad. Turn our captivity and restore our fortunes, oh Lord. As the streams in the south are restored by the torrents. They who sow in tears shall reap in joy and singing.”
Have you sown in some tearful prayer times in the past months? Perhaps you have. I know I have. But guess what? There’s a harvest coming! There’s a harvest on the way. I pronounce there’s a harvest of breakthrough. There’s a harvest of resources. There’s a harvest of good things about to break out and break forth.
A breakout of breakthroughs…
And here in the Midwest, we hear about severe weather and tornadoes. You know, that’s of the enemy. Well, guess what? There’s a coming, even now, forming on the horizon of your life and my life and the church, even here at Living Word, a breakout of breakthroughs! A breaking out of abundance and revival and healings and works of Jesus.
Think about what could go right in your life…
My daughter’s volleyball coach posed the question… I could tell it impressed something upon my daughter. It made a noticeable change in her. And she even wrote it down and had it on her mirror. It’s basically a question that asks, “What things can go right and what good things can happen in her game or in her life.” We’re so conditioned to think worst-case scenario. But in the heavenly realm from God’s perspective, it’s only faith perspective. It’s only best-case scenario. It’s only the certainty of the promise of God that He’s coming through for you.
The Bible says there is no shadow of turning in the heart or the reality of God or the reality of His realm. That’s what the Word does. It drives out darkness. It drives out shadows of turning or secondary thoughts, or maybe “I should just compromise.” Or “Maybe it’s not going to happen for me.”
No! The more you lean into His Word, the more you become saturated with His promise, with His presence. The more certain you become, the more steadfast you grow, the greater your foundation is so that you can become like Abraham, the father of our faith, determined and well convinced that God is able and will follow through. And that good things are breaking forth on the scene of your life.
If He said it, then I believe it, and that settles it!
It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t happen today or next month or even this year. All that matters is I choose to believe and I believe that God’s Word is so. If he said it, I believe it. That settles it. As Charles Capp said many years ago. Glory to God.
