Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Pastor Ken…
Good morning, everyone. Good to have you here.
My name is Ken Olson and I lead prayer on Mondays and Wednesdays, and sometimes Tuesdays. Today I thought I would start out by sharing an excerpt from a book by Grace Ryerson Roos entitled “Prayer Letters.” I read one excerpt last week, and I’m going to read another one today as a starting off point for prayer this morning. It’s something that will perhaps cause you to reflect and draw your attention to something that will help you enter into prayer.
As pray-ers, we must remove distractions from our lives…
There’s so many distractions we deal with on a daily basis in these days, and I don’t know about you, but I find myself oftentimes frustrated at myself even when I’m trying to pray. Because things come up in my mind and I get a notification on my phone, and I find I have to either turn my phone off or put my phone in another room, even when I’m praying. Because it’s such an ever present source of distraction. And so I think one of the greatest needs for us as pray-ers, for us as believers is to practice putting our phones down, uncomplicating our lives in different ways and removing distractions. Because I’m here to remind us this morning that there’s a whole other level of what God wants to do in our hearts, in our lives, in our churches, in our nation, if we’ll take the time to tune into Him.
Prayer is a flow that comes from heaven…
And that flow is at a particular frequency or a particular location. And it’s different than our natural frequencies that we pay attention to. And you’ve got to purposely tune into the frequency or the flow of heaven—what God is saying, what God is doing.
And so I want to do that today. My heart prayer often is, “Lord, what do You want to do today? What do You want to do with morning prayer? Not what I want, but what do You want?” I’m not interested in preaching my own message or getting more visibility. I just want what He wants. That’s what it’s all about, right? For my life, for my children, for my finances, for my ministry, for each and every day. Life is such a gift, isn’t it? And I desire to use it to glorify Him.
Our part is faith…
I talked a little bit about faith on Monday and the importance of faith. God’s part is to perform what He said He would perform or what He would do for us and produce power to get it done. Power for us to do our day. But our part is faith. The Bible reminds us to earnestly, diligently contend for the faith. In other words, contend to live and move and have your being in faith by believing and not by seeing.
Excerpt from “Prayer Letters” by Grace Ryerson Roos…
So let me just read this letter number nine out of Grace Ryerson Roos, “Prayer Letters” where she addresses intercessors, pray-ers. She says,
“Hear the word of the Lord. And the Lord says, Comfort you My people. Comfort them. Cheer them. Lift them. The enemy is storming the body of Christ in ways never experienced before. The great discouragement has entered into many. Tell them again that greater is He that is in them than he that is in the world. Stand. And having done all to stand, stand.”
Stand. And stand. What does the Bible say? Stand. And having done all of that you know to do, stand therefore that you may be… what does it say? Perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
Don’t back off…
So there’s a word for somebody this morning. You’ve got the ability to stand. You’ve got the ability to at least not back off. Sometimes making progress in God and in the plan of God and in a prayer assignment is just not backing off, just standing in one place. The Bible says the Holy Spirit is our great standby. What is He standing by for? He’s standing to…
Help us to stand
Help us to endure
Help us to persevere
Help us to not back up or lose ground.
Word of encouragement…
So I don’t know if that’s a word of encouragement for somebody this morning, but some days you’re in victory, you’re making progress by just staying in your place in God. Not losing ground. Not backing off.
The Bible says God’s heart is not pleased by those who withdraw or back up. So in the face of adversity, in the face of contrary circumstances, we as pray-ers and as believers must choose to go with what we believe—not what we see.
The enemy wants you to focus on what is not working…
I suppose that’s why there are so many distractions in this world and why the enemy is so prolific about producing distractions, because he’s trying to get us to focus on what isn’t working and what failed in the past and what happened the other day, rather than, “What does God have to say?”
Faith is simply hearing from God and saying the same thing. It doesn’t get any more complicated than that. Faith is simply hearing from God… hearing what He’s saying from His Book to your heart and saying the same thing, getting in agreement with it.
Believing and then acting on the Word releases power…
When you speak what God is saying to you, what He said in His Word, it transmits the frequency of heaven. It releases the hand of God. When you believe in the Word of God, when you act on the Word of God, it releases power. It releases the hand of God.
Grace goes on to say…
“Stand, refuse to give place to the enemy. He cannot change My Word.”
The enemy can’t change God’s Word. If he said it to you a certain way, then let it be so. If He says that His will is that all should be saved and none should perish, then let it be so in your household. If He said His desire is that you would increase more and more you and your children, then the enemy can’t change that. Let it be so. The enemy can try to create delays, but remember, a delay is not a denial. If God said it should be true for you, then it will be. But just continue to stand, continue to believe. Grow not weary in well-doing.
Our job is just beginning…
Even as we enter into a new season in America with a new leader and a new administration, as I said on Monday, even though some good things are happening on the scene of the leadership of these United States of America, our job is just beginning. As pray-ers, we must hold up our leaders. We must hold up the plan of God and contend, stand in the face of contrary circumstances.
If you know your enemy, you know he’s going to try to take cheap shots in the coming days. He’s going to try to mess some things up. He’s going to try to complicate and create issues. But we can still stand in the face of those contrary circumstances and say, “No, no, it’s not going that way. We’re not moved by that. I’m only moved by the Word of God. And God’s Word says thus… regarding America, that America shall be saved. That we will see the glory of God poured out upon this generation and upon this nation like no other time, even before the wrapping up of the age.”
Be a curator of God’s Word…
That’s why it’s so important to be a curator of God’s Word. Not only by going to His Book, but also as you hear things and as you receive things from Him and as people even speak words of encouragement over you, don’t let them just go in one ear and out the other. Catch them. Curate them. Keep them before you. Keep the vision of what God has intended, what God has decreed for your life before you. That’s one of the most important and first steps in becoming an effective pray-er. We’re praying the Word of God. We’re simply here to reflect the will and the Word of God back to Him. We’re not coming up with our own plan, right? In our own lives for the church, for America. No. We want God’s plan. What does God intend? What does He declare? What does He decree? He leads the way and what He does in the earth…
By His Word
By what He prophetically speaks
By what He has announced in His Book
By what He’s whispered in your heart.
Guard your heart by guarding what you hear…
So, guard your heart. Guard your faith. And if you’re going to guard your faith and keep it robust and strong, you must guard what you hear because faith comes by hearing. But remember, faith also goes by hearing something else. There is a report of the Lord. But then there is also a report of the enemy. So be selective as far as what you hear. Don’t be flippant or casual about what you’re looking at and what you’re hearing. The Bible says clearly guard the gates of your eyes and the gates of your ears. Because they feed directly into your heart.
And what does Proverbs say?
It says that your heart is important because out of it flow the issues or the forces that create your reality or create your life. So it all starts with your heart. It all starts with what the Bible says in the New Testament. Each day, be intentional to adopt a new attitude of mind. Choose wisely…
What you’re going to say
What you’re going to listen to
What you’ll you’re going to consume
What you will allow into your heart
Because it either feeds or it depletes your faith.
And your faith is critical.
Your faith is so important, which really I like to say isn’t even really your faith. Because the Bible says in Romans 12:3, that each of us, upon receiving Jesus, has received a measure of the God kind and the God quality of faith.
So He’s planted a seed of His faith, the God kind of faith. The faith that created the cosmos and flung them into existence. He planted that on the inside of us. Now it’s up to us to stir up that faith. It’s up to us to nourish that faith, to contend for that faith. Because it is what enables us to stand before God and ask and receive because we do so in faith.
“Faith is an act…”
The Bible says He’s a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. That’s descriptive of what faith does. Smith Wigglesworth got up one day and he spoke the shortest message probably ever recorded. He just got up and said, “Faith is an act. Faith is an act.” He said it several times and then he walked off the stage. And I’m sure people are like, “What’s up with Smith? What the heck?” But he summed it up really succinctly.
Faith is an act.
It’s acting as if God’s Word is so. Contrary to what the enemy would tell you or get you to believe, you can in the midst of a difficult season, a dark night of the soul, choose to worship God. You can choose to speak over contrary circumstances and situations what God says ought to be and really should be. And by doing so, begin to reframe circumstances, reframe situations, and change them.
We’re change agents in the earth…
You and I are sent here as change agents. We’re sent here upon this earth, in this generation to be dealers of hope, people who are injected by the providence of God into a generation, into a season, into a community, into a church, into a school, into the marketplace, in a particular realm to make a difference, to be a game changer, to be inserted, to intercede and contend for the faith to be a disruptor of enemy strategies. Not responsive to what the enemy’s thrown at us and reeling in, “Oh my gosh, I didn’t realize.” No! We’re wise to his devices. The Bible says to be wise. He’s not going to back off. So we’re not going to back off. We’re going to stand. Having done all to stand. Stand.
Use your words to steer your life…
In the face of contrary circumstances, in the face of negativity. Stand and worship Him. Stand and declare the works of God. Stand and decree the way it’s going to go today. You steer your life with your words. James tells us that your words are like a rudder. They steer your life, your household, your family, those that come after you. They will fall into the wake that you create.
“Oh, that’s good preaching, Pastor Ken.” I’m glad you agree.
Our prayers create a wake…
You and I are creating a wake. When we’re praying here and standing in the spirit by faith, we are creating a new wake. We’re creating a new trajectory, not just for our little old selves, but we’re creating a wake behind us for all those who come after us, for those in our nation, for those in our community.
We’re done with doing nothing…
Who is the famous person who once said that all that’s needed for evil to succeed is for good men or good women to do nothing. Well, we’re done with doing nothing. We’re doing something! We’re engaging our faith. We’re creating a new wake. And as we do so, change is going to happen. As we pray collectively and individually for our presidents and leaders, we are making it possible for God to create the reality of what He wants in America in the coming days, months, and years. Not only in America, but the nations.
Speak words with purpose…
God wants to work so intimately and integrally with us now. There’s such purpose. Somebody once said that God is the most purposeful being in all the universe, whether you realize it or not, in your everyday going around doing what you do day in life, there is purpose. Speak words with purpose. Even driving down the road, paying the bills, speak words over your finances, speak words over what you see in the news… Words of life. Words of hope.
Your words create a wake.
A wake of change.
