Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Pastor Ken…
Thank you, Father, that nothing is impossible to those who will simply believe.
Lord, we just confess that we believe this morning. We trust you today, Lord. We will not be denied. We recognize our hour and our season and our time. We recognize your voice, Lord. We recognize the simplicity of you prompting us on the inside to recognize that the Lion of the tribe of Judah is in us. And it’s time to get up and fight. It’s time to get up and contend for the faith.
So Father, we just look to you today. We turn our hearts towards you, Lord, with reverence and awe and respect and worship.
Lord, have your way in our nation, in Israel, in the church, in the name of Jesus.
Our journey of faith is a series of offers from God…
I sense it in my own heart, maybe it’s just me. I sense God extending a fresh offer to His people. Pastor Lynne once said that our journey of faith, our spiritual life, is nothing but a series of offers. God offers. Just like a salesperson offers you a deal on that new car, or that house, or whatever. God offers salvation. That’s His introductory offer, you could say. But that’s just the first offer. There are many to follow. And without a doubt, right now, God is extending another offer to the church. And that offer is to come close to Him. That offer is to turn up our spiritual temperature. And I’ll remind you what the Bible says which is that we’re to contend for the faith.
Contend for the faith…
Contend simply means to fight. Not fight the enemy but fight to contend for the faith. Labor to enter into rest. What is rest? It is faith. It is trust. It is an utter reliance and dependency on God and His Word and His nature and who He stated that He is and wants to be in us and through us. Amen?
And so that is our call, day by day, is to contend for the faith. And, in fact, God has wired us up in such a way that we do well when we are hot for God, when there is a fervency about us.
Faith comes by hearing and hearing…
Once again, Romans 12:11… I’ve stated this on Monday, but it’s good enough that we should state it again. How many of you know that redundancy or when we repeat things is important, it’s actually a safety to us. When we hear things and hear things, faith comes by hearing, not having heard once, but hearing and hearing and hearing and hearing, right?
The Bible says give more earnest heed to those things that you have learned, lest at any time you let them slip. Why? Because it’s a safety to us. It’s our protection. It’s our rear guard. It is our help for the future. Amen? It is necessary that we would be reminded regularly. So that the flame of God within us is stoked and burning brightly.
God has wired us to run hot…
But Romans 12:11 says, “Be enthusiastic.” Some of you don’t know it, but this is the answer to your breakthrough this morning. God has wired us up to run hot. Just like your automobile. It is inefficient and doesn’t produce as much power when it’s cold. But when you warm it up and it reaches an optimum running temperature, it produces an optimum level of performance. Horsepower, it’s efficient. But when it’s cold, not so much.
We were designed to be hot for Him…
And that’s the way we are on the inside. We were designed to be hot for Him. In fact, the Bible says that when you run hot, when you are fervent, when you are contending for the faith, when you are seeking for that coal to be taken off the altar of God and placed on your lips and placed in your heart, when you are running and living and doing what you do with intentionality and purpose and fervency and spiritual heat, the Bible says actually things are added to you automatically. Blessings and goodness and favor and open doors swing wide. They swing wide for you. Right?
Things will be automatically added to you…
Matthew 6:33 says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things…” What are things? It’s referring to natural things. “Shall be automatically added to you.” So often in our Western religious mindset, we pursue the hand of God. We pursue the things that we define as blessings. Well, all along, God just wants us to know Him, to pursue Him, to be in proximity to Him day by day, contending for the faith. And then He’s able to easily add things to us without us even noticing at times.
“Lord, when did you add that to my life? When did I get free in that part of my heart? When did that door… how did that door… I don’t even know how that happened.”
I could sit here for hours and tell you, I don’t know how that happened, and that happened in my life, but it was good. God wants to bless His people even with simple things at times. It will renew your youth like the eagle, the Bible says. He wants to bless and refresh us, but He needs us to come close to Him. It’s called the principle of proximity. We need to be close to Him.
Be enthusiastic…
So in Romans 12:11 from the Passion Translation, it states, “Be enthusiastic.” Remember, I said on Monday that life is hard and difficult and not so fun when we’re less than enthusiastic. Because we were created and God designed that we would be “peddle to the metal” in our pursuit of Him. And I get it, life ebbs and flows and sometimes things intervene and we get distracted and we make mistakes. But thank God there is one called Jesus Christ, the righteous, whoever lives to intercede and offer sacrifice perpetually for you and me so that when we mess up, we can simply look up, right? And ask and receive His grace and His mercy so that we can just continue with Him.
But Romans 12:11 says, “Be enthusiastic to serve the Lord, keeping your passion toward Him boiling hot, radiant with the glow of the Holy Spirit and let Him fill you with excitement as you serve Him.”
One of the ways I’m doing that, I’m finding in my heart the Lord just prompting me to be very deliberate in my daily life toward Him, first of all, but in general.
What do you mean by that, Ken?
I’m intentional to raise my hands even when I don’t feel like it. I’m not saying you have to do this. I’m just saying I am leaning in and I’m intentional in my spiritual journey. When I bring my offering to the Lord, my tithe, and I plant financial seed, I do what Pastor Lynne taught me years ago. I’m intentionally injecting faith. I hold that offering, that check, that offering envelope. And I say, “Lord, I inject faith into this. Lord, I bring this to you. The Bible says, Here men give tithes. But over there in the spiritual dimension, you receive them and you confer blessing.” And so I just see that. And I release my faith intentionally. Amen.
Be intentional when pursuing God…
I’m intentional that when I’m pursuing God, I’m present. I’m all there. I endeavor to be all there as much as I can. It’s a journey. I know. But just leaning in and being intentional and purposeful in every aspect of your spiritual journey. Not simply going through the motions. A prayer, for example. I mean, prayer doesn’t have to be long and arduous. I think in our minds, in our religious mindset and indoctrination, unfortunately, we think it has to be long and arduous and difficult in a form of abasement or something. But the truth is, God just wants us to get up every day in the Spirit. He wants us to get up every day and turn our hearts toward Him. Throughout the day, right? Just simply turn your heart toward Him. It doesn’t take hours and hours of prayer. It just takes a moment of presentness. A moment of turning your heart toward Him, becoming conscious of Him, and aware of the abiding presence of Jesus Christ, by and through His Spirit inside of us, that He’s there as our helper and our guide. He’s there to inspire you. He’s there to propel you down the path and the course for your life. He’s there to cause you to rise above failure and mediocrity and past difficulties and challenges and things that were unfortunate and you had nothing to do with, but happened to you.
He is in the business of causing us to rise. But how does a hot air balloon rise? It needs hot air, right? And I don’t mean the stuff that just comes out of your mouth. I mean the presence of God, the presence of Jesus will cause you to rise above, will cause you to operate optimally so that things are just added to you as a matter of course. Even natural things, even increases and promotions and dreams that are in your heart that you desire to see become true. Because nothing, once again, is impossible to those who believe.
I’ve said before that your prayers, the transcript of your prayers, should eventually become the script of your life. So prayer is the first way we can make impossibilities possible.
Grab hold of every moment…
Did I even finish reading this verse? I don’t know. Oh, no, I was going to read the next verse. So we’re talking about turning up our spiritual temperature, number one. Number two, being intentional and purposeful. The Bible says be intentional and purposeful about in your day-to-day life. Redeeming the time for the days are evil, Paul wrote to the church. All we have is time, but it’s fleeting. It goes by quick. We should be buying back time. We should be grabbing hold of every moment that we get that we think to turn our heart toward Him or spend time in the Word or be activated in heavenly calling. It’s precious. Time is precious!
And what you turn your attention toward and what you spend your time on is what ultimately you’re following. But it just takes a moment to connect with God. Just pause and reflect on Him. Reflect on His Word. Look to your heart and say, “Lord, what’s up? What’s happening? How do you want me to go about my day? How do you want me to make a decision regarding this?”
Just being conscious of Him. You don’t have to think too hard. You shouldn’t think at all, really. Just be peaceful and present and aware that He’s your loving, gracious, patient, amazing Heavenly Father. He’s for you, not against you. Who’s in you. And it’s already made a way where you don’t see a way and others say there’s no way. God has a way! He’s just looking for people who will trust Him and connect with Him and believe Him.
That’s what prayer is…
Lord, we believe and we agree with what your plan is. Colossians 3 reinforces what I’m saying this morning. In verse 23, again from the Passion Translation, it says, “Put your heart and soul into every activity you do, as though you are doing it for the Lord Himself and not merely for others. For we know that we will receive a reward and inheritance from the Lord as we serve the Lord Yahweh, the Anointed One.”
Then in Hebrews 11:6, it states, “And without faith living within us, it would be impossible to please God. For we come to God in faith, knowing that He is real and that He rewards the faith of those who passionately seek Him.” Amen? Passionately seek Him.
Don’t let yourself become separated from God’s highest flow…
I was reflecting last night and I jotted down this comment. One of the main reasons why we seek to remain fervent and hot for God is because it’s easy to become separated from God’s highest flow for our lives. There are different levels of flow. You can live a very natural flow, just go through the motions of day-to-day natural life and living. And you can exist and get by. But how many of you know, God’s called us to a higher flow? That’s why you’re in prayer, right? There’s a higher flow that God wants us to link up with that issues forth from heaven, from and by His Spirit, that will take you places you can’t even dream of right now and cause you to be a recipient of God’s goodness to a degree that you didn’t know was possible. But it’s found in the higher flow. And us being pursuant of living fervent for Him helps us to maintain that higher flow.
It’s all about your focus…
The Lord once said to a minister of the Gospel, “Living in My presence doesn’t come by earning. Instead, it comes by turning.” Not by earning or striving or struggling or trying to be a better Christian and not be bad. But by turning. It’s all about your focus. What you focus on, you move toward. It’s a kingdom principle. And what you focus on, what you look at is what you’re following and ultimately what you become.
I also jotted this down last night and that is that knowing God intimately and having relationship with Him that is marked by His tangible presence is easy and not earned. It comes by repeatedly turning and refocusing our attention on the Lord, who is on the inside of us.
Tim and Dutch Sheets Devotional…
Let me read something else to you here this morning. I just wanted to share those thoughts, but then I also wanted to share something that’s… I’m going to kind of depart from that a little bit. But I thought maybe this would be a good place for us to kind of begin praying from. It’s the October 16th devotional from Tim and Dutch Sheets. And they shared this under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and as they reflected and discussed some things, they wrote “We are in significant days, walking out the strategy of our Lord. It is imperative that we press into hear what He is saying. The church must accept responsibility of engaging and decreeing God’s Word as we move into the next season.”
I think that’s significant because God has a next season for you. You’re not always going to be in this season. Even if it’s a good season, there is yet another step and another level and a higher flow God intends for you to experience. And it’s necessary if you’re going to fulfill your call. As a pray-er, as a believer, as a pastor, as a leader, as a parent. Whatever the case might be.
And again, that’s why spiritual fervency and turning up your spiritual temperature is necessary. Because it lifts you. They go on to write, “I asked the Holy Spirit recently to show me what He is currently speaking and He gave me a vision. In the vision, I saw a map of the United States along with many other nations of the world. As I looked at the map, I began to see a display of fireworks. Each one shot up into the sky in a streak of light and exploded.” Can you envision that?
“I heard the Lord say, “Today we launch the strike force of the angel armies.” I then began to see seraphim, a particular rank of angels, and government angels.” How many know there are government angels hanging out in the spiritual atmosphere around Washington D. C. and, of course, other national capitals and governments. “…along with other angel divisions going forth on assignments. I realized the shooting fireworks had actually been angels of light. From each state and many other nations, I had seen angels shooting up streaks of light. The explosions I saw were promises, prophetic words, dreams, visions, and declarations from believers.”
Hmm, interesting.
“After the vision, the Lord said, ‘the angels of the Lord Sabaoth are now launched to explode and activate. There will be explosions of promises, of dreams, of visions, of prophetic words coming to pass.”
Can you see that this morning? For you, for your church, for your family? Explosions. Realizations. Materialization of the promise of God, of the dream in your heart, of the purpose of God for your church, your ministry, your family. I believe God calls families. And maybe it’s just you this morning, but God has called your family. And He’s leveraging you as the mom, the dad, the son, the daughter to be that remnant who stands up. Even if it’s just for your family, right? Come on now. If we’re in the end of days, if we believe God’s Word, then we ought to get purposeful and on fire.
