Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Pastor Ken…
Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Morning Prayer on this Wednesday. It’s morning here, Central Standard Time in the United States.
“How do I become a full grown adult and grow as a leader?”
I was reflecting this morning about a meeting I had yesterday with a young man who’s in our internship here at Living Word. He’d asked to meet with me and wanted to pick my brain, and so I told him he could have whatever’s left!
So he asked me some questions. And his first question was, “Ken, how do I become a full-grown adult, so to speak, and grow as a leader and aspire to be more mature in my life and in my faith?”
- Be authentic with yourself…
Two things came to mind right away as he asked me that question. I said, “One, if you’re going to grow up, you have to be willing to be authentic with yourself, real with yourself and with God, and own your crap, if you will.”
Don’t ignore it. Don’t procrastinate about things that God’s dealing with you about that you see in His Word. Be fully a doer of the Word. The Bible reminds us, don’t be just a hearer of the Word, but be a doer of His Word.
2. Understand that time is the great currency of life…
And then I said the second thing is, if you’re going to do that, you need to have an understanding that time is the great currency of life. And how you use your time will either work for you or against you. And I said one of the most important things that I think a lot of Christians overlook is the importance of growing stronger.
A strong spirit will sustain you…
I’m reminded in the Old Testament the scripture reads that “a strong spirit of a man will sustain him through bodily harm and trouble.” I’m reminded of times in my past where I can look back and see where there were blockages, there was a slowness in the plan of God, a slowness in my progress and my maturation process as a believer, as a person. I didn’t progress probably like I would’ve liked to at certain seasons in my life. And I can look back and while I was looking for the silver-bullet solution as to why I was not progressing like I ought to, or not seeing the breakthroughs that I thought I should see, I was looking externally. But God was saying internally, “Ken, strengthen yourself. Sow to your spirit. Put down your roots deeper and deeper.”
Put down your roots…
How many of you know sometimes that’s what the Spirit of God is saying to us, prospering to us. While we’re looking for something big and bold and spectacular to do, He’s simply saying, “Be with me today. Put down your roots. Let your spirit be strong in Me.” Because much of what God can do in your life and in the church relates to—are we ready to? are we strong enough?
There are things as I look back now, like He was waiting for me to simply just to grow stronger and put my roots down deeper, strengthen my faith in different ways so that He could take me through certain things, promote me into certain things.
Use your time to devote yourself to the Lord…
And so I shared this with this young gentleman yesterday. I said, “Use your time, even little bits of your time, to devote yourself to the Lord. To be one who meditates on the promises of God, who spends time in prayer. Who lifts up even in the privacy of your home, your hands to God to worship Him.” Even just little moments of time repeated over and over. Because in the scriptures, it doesn’t talk about us as Christians doing many things simultaneously, all at once. That’s important. In fact, it says that there is an importance to the sequence of what we do in life. Meaning there are a few things that we need to do in a particular order that will produce the greatest results.
Seek first the kingdom of God…
That’s why the Bible says “seek first the kingdom of God.” And there are many other passages that talk about following a certain sequence and doing a few things over and over consistently and how they produce results, they produce change, and they produce strength in our hearts to be prepared for what God has planned for the coming day.
Jeremiah 1:11, He watches over His Word…
There’s a couple of scriptures that I thought of that I wanted to share with you. The first one begins in Jeremiah 1:11, from the Passion translation. Jeremiah says…
“Yahweh spoke to me again and said What do you see, Jeremiah? I replied, I see an almond branch. You have seen the vision correctly, Yahweh said. Now know this. I constantly watch over My Word to fulfill it.” The King James says to “perform it.”
Isaiah 55:8, My Word does not return void…
So in Isaiah 55:8, from the Passion translation. “For my thoughts about mercy are not your thoughts, and my ways are different from yours. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so are my ways and my thoughts are higher than yours. As the snow and rain that fall from heaven do not return until they have accomplished their purpose, soaking the earth and causing it to sprout with new life providing seed to sow and bread to eat.”
Now get this…
Verse 11 says, “So also will be the Word that I speak. It does not return to me unfulfilled. My word performs my purpose and fulfills the mission that I sent it out to accomplish.”
So, God’s reminding us this morning, just strengthen yourself. Just wait in His presence. Let your roots go down deep because God is watching over His Word and He will perform it.
He makes all things beautiful in its time…
The Bible says in Ecclesiastes, that He makes all things beautiful in its time. And so often the enemy steals from us realizing answered prayer from us, realizing a fuller experience of our calling of God’s blessing.
Because we’re not strong.
Because we’re easily dissuaded.
Because we’re easily detoured.
Because we’re easily offended.
Because we easily give up and go a different direction.
A great key to life is being strong in faith…
But one of the great keys to life is just like Abraham. The Bible says he grew strong in faith. Even well past age of childbearing. He grew strong in his faith and just fell in love with the process of getting strong and staying strong in his faith. And as a result, decades came and decades went, and he was still standing. And as a result, he saw the fullness of God’s promise.
Continuing in the faith…
And that’s a huge and an important aspect to prayer. It’s just continuing. It’s day by day, walking with God, becoming strong in Him. Becoming full of Him.
One more verse…
In Numbers in the New King James translation, it says, “God is not a man that He should lie, nor a son of man that he should repent. Has He said and will He not do? Or has He spoken and will He not make it good?”
The point is, “Yes, He will make it good.”
“Behold, I have received a command to bless. He has blessed and cannot reverse.”
Grace Ryerson Roos’ book, “Prayer Letters,” number 13…
In Grace Ryerson Roos’ book, “Prayer Letters: Letters Written to Pray-ers.” Last Monday, I read letter number 11. Today, I’m going to read a short letter, letter number 13. She writes…
“I want to talk to you about prayer. There is no real spiritual life or growth without it. Prayer is talking to God. It is worship. It is fellowship with Him. It is thanksgiving. It is praise. It is sharing our troubles and our problems with one who has definite power to help us. Prayer is drawing near to God that He might draw near to us.”
Of course, that’s James 4:8.
“There is nothing mysterious about prayer. It will be just what you make it. Whatever you invest in it will bring return in proportion. For that reason, prayer is a business. It is the spiritual currency we invest in the kingdom of God to get God’s will done on the earth. There are ways, however, to tend to this business that will bring spiritual prosperity to you and glory to God.
Prayer lists…
“Early in my Christian experience, I heard about prayer lists. The idea of having a list to pray from that would include everything I should remember appealed to me. I started my list by including my loved ones and my relatives, friends, and missionaries. I divided these three groups saved, unsaved, and missionaries. I recorded prayer requests of friends on other pages, also my own personal experiences and needs.
“Every day I brought them to God. As my list grew, I had to add new headings and revise it many times. Keeping track of my requests made me doubly aware when the answer came. Even today, when I come across a line drawn through some requests with a pencil date written at the end, I am encouraged. That means that prayer had been answered. And when.”
Now get this. She says…
“The most effective praying is based on the promise of God. It is very important that we study the Word to know what God says. What God says is our authority and basis of our faith. What God has said shall not return void.”
We just read that passage.
“So great is the power of the Word of God that Jesus said, ‘heaven and earth shall pass away, but My Word shall not pass away,’ Matthew 24:35. Let us make prayer our business. Here is a challenging statement to claim in prayer each morning during the month.
God is not a man that He should lie…
Numbers 23:19, “God is not a man that He should lie. Neither the son of man that He should repent” or you could say, change His mind. “Hath He said and shall He not do it? Or hath He spoken and shall He not make it good?” The answer emphatically is He will make it good. He is making it good. His Word in your life for healing. His Word to you regarding your family. His Word to you regarding your high calling and the dream that He dropped in your heart maybe a decade or two ago.
God is not moved by space or time…
God’s not moved by time or space. We live in time or space, so we’re very cognizant of time and we have our schedules and we have our deadlines, and we know when we’re late regarding certain things on our agenda. But God is not moved by that. He is outside of time and space. He simply gives His command, which is to “seek first My kingdom” and know that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Let your faith grow robust…
That’s why it’s so important… Just put your roots down deep. Just one day at a time, even a few minutes a day, attend to His Word. Give attention to His voice in your spirit. Spend time praying in your heavenly prayer language. Let your faith grow robust so that you cannot be moved, so that when you’ve done all that you know to do, you can continue to stand.
In fact, I’ll take a step beyond that. I’ll level you up and say, not only do all that you know to do to stand, but be able to worship and fall upon your knees and worship God in the midst of tribulation and trials and trouble and contrary circumstances. Because this isn’t our faith. This isn’t the same faith that you used to expect that the chair is going to be underneath your blessed assurance when you sit down. The faith that God has sown into our lives is a divine faith. It’s a God kind and God quality of faith. It’s the very faith that was able to create the cosmos and are still being created to this day.
So why, of course, it can change what seems to be impossible.
Why, of course, He’s called the God of the impossible and that all things are possible.
Don’t be caught off guard…
So use the currency of your time to grow strong in the coming days, that we would not be caught off guard by what the enemy might do or what might be reported on ZNN a month from now.
No. God is calling us to be a strong church, a strong people, fully connected and fully joined with Him on a daily, even moment by moment basis.
Grace goes on to say this…
“Let us realize He is God unchangeable, completely sovereign, tender, and compassionate. God can be trusted to keep His Word. His promises can be utterly relied upon no matter how circumstances and feelings declare otherwise.”
Oh, that’s good right there. Come on now!
That’s bottom-line truth right there!
“Because God says my needs shall be supplied, they shall be supplied.”
You know, that’s a really good place and most important time to pray. And when I say pray, I don’t necessarily mean just praying in the spirit or praying a prayer of supplication or prayer of faith. But just simply use your voice. Use your words.
Use your words…
When my kids were little, we used to say to them, “Use your words to express your heart. What’s going on? Use your words.” Well, sometimes God’s saying that to us as His children.
Use your words not to describe your situation.
Use your words to change your situation.
Use your words to address the evil.
Use your words to bind what is going on in a situation that is caused by the enemy.
Use your words to transform atmospheres.
It’s not magic!
No! We’re not talking about the dark arts. We’re talking about God’s way and His way is life. We choose life with the words we give thought to and the words we speak and we utter and articulate. And those words are not just hot air. The Bible’s very clear. Those words set spiritual laws in motion. Those words you speak even as you drive down the road and aren’t even fully conscious of what you’re saying, they release spiritual laws. They release life or they release death.
Your words do real work…
So let your words in the midst of the darkest hour you’re facing deal with what’s going on and change it over time. That’s why we make faith decrees because we believe they do real work. They release real faith. They dispatch real angels. They give God real heavenly materiality to create substance out of your faith, healing out of your faith in His promise that He sent His Word to heal you, that Jesus bore your sicknesses and carried away your diseases, that by His stripes you might be made whole from head to toe.
Glory to God!
Don’t let your words cause your soul to be conflicted or confused…
Use your words to not cause your soul to be conflicted. A lot of times when you’re speaking doubt and unbelief, when you’re just joking around and making fun of yourself, you’re confusing your own spirit! You’re depleting your confidence in God and in His Word. The most important preacher you ought to be listening to is you. Because your words feed directly into your heart. So…
What are you saying about you?
What are you saying about that situation?
What are you saying about your children?
What are you saying about your finances?
The words you speak have an impact…
What you say all day long every day is having an impact. It’s either causing your faith to grow stronger or weaker. It’s either giving license to the angels and God the Holy Spirit to fulfill what He’s promised or it’s hindering them and giving freedom to the enemy to beat you up.
Speak truth to yourself.
Don’t say what you have.
Say what God says you should have.
What God says ought to be so.
God says you can have what you say…
God has said you can have what you say. Mark 11:23. These are important considerations to keep at the forefront of your thinking and your heart each and every day. Not because it’s going to change it magically in a moment, but because every day you get up, if you will endeavor to strengthen yourself in the understanding of God’s Word and you’ll deploy a simple principle that you can have what you say, that your words can work for you or they work against you, and you’ll begin to function and operate in those even a little bit more every day in the right ways. You will see a shift in the momentum of your circumstances in your life and change—real change—come to your life that will bless your soul more than you can imagine.
