Morning Prayer Summary for Wednesday, September 14, 2022

Pastor Ken…

Well, you and I are on a path that we, as the church, are on a particular path to glory. We are not here haphazardly, randomly, bumping into things accidentally going through life. If you have professed His name, He has us on a path. And according to the Scripture, it’s an upward path that leads to glory. Aren’t you glad? God has an order and a design and a plan and a purpose for today and every day. And He’s taking us somewhere. And He’s taking the church somewhere. And He’s taking us individually somewhere today on purpose. As we open our hearts to Him and respond and obey, where we need to obey.

Sid Roth’s Heavenly Academy Rewards…

Well, this morning I just have a couple of things briefly I want to share with you what I thought was interesting and I just want to encourage you. I think we need to be our own best cheerleaders in prayer and in our daily lives and journeys in various ways. I heard this story shared firsthand by Sid Roth. He’s been around for years and has his radio and I think television and a podcast and YouTube channel. And he shared a story how years ago when he first began to enter ministry. He was a new Jewish believer. He was traveling the country early on. He hadn’t even read the New Testament, but he was already traveling the country and speaking. And as he says, he was full of himself. He had a lot of worldly pride in some ways and needed to grow desperately. And he laid down to go to sleep one night and had a dream. And in that dream, he was on a grand stage in heaven where it was in heaven at the academy rewards night. Not awards. But academy rewards night. And just like in the academy awards in Hollywood, there was a stage and a podium and somebody brought an envelope, the envelope was torn, and a name was announced. And it was for a significant person in the kingdom of heaven who’s done great things. And he thought for sure he was going to win that cuz he was in the audience witnessing it in this dream. And he thought for sure he was going to hear his name called and he was going to be rewarded for his traveling around the nation, speaking to multitudes of people.

And so in that heavenly vision, an envelope was torn. Somebody blew it open, pulled out a slip of paper and read the name. However, it was not Sid’s name. It was the name of somebody else. They pointed to this woman and she stood up. She was an older woman, a praying woman. He said an older intercessor type… a motherly type who had been praying for years and giving herself to that post and assignment in prayer. And he just asked himself, “How can that be?” I’m traveling all over the country and speaking and doing this and doing that. But she won the academy reward in heaven in that dream. And as he pondered that and asked “why didn’t they pick me?” He heard the Lord whisper in his ear, simply “That could have been you.” And from that moment on…or from that dream forward, the Lord began to teach him the value of intercession, number one. And number two, the power of decision.

We’re all just in kindergarten…

So be encouraged if you are an intercessor because there will come a day where our lives will be audited when we step over and there will be an Academy Rewards in Heaven. And there’ll be much to gain and much to benefit in the eternities to come. I know we live a very myopic, very narrowly focused life down here with it being just about us and our immediate needs and situations. But make no mistake about it, we are just in kindergarten. We’re going to kindergarten. When we came to this chapel, when you logged online this morning, you entered kindergarten. And if you live to be 120, you’ll still be in kindergarten, as long as you’re down here. But then there will come a day where we’ll hear our names called, the roll call will be given and we’ll hear our name and we will be promoted. And we’ll graduate from kindergarten. Hopefully. Although I’ve heard in some instances where people have had life-after-death experiences, that if there are certain things about principles of faith… I think we’re ever going to be learning the principles of God’s Word and His kingdom.

In Heaven, there is still an opportunity to learn faith…

But there are some things that we are called to learn and some tests we are assigned to pass down here. And I’ve heard from people who’ve had heavenly visions and have had life-after-death experiences and witnessed a life in the day of heaven that if you don’t, and if you at least gain heaven, even though you may not live the greatest down here, you’ll have an opportunity to go through school up there and learn about faith and learn about how to function in the principles of the kingdom there as well.

Redeem every moment that we can…

But I don’t know about you. I want to redeem my time. I want to utilize it. In fact, I feel like we’re in a time where God is really focusing the church and really placing an emphasis in the lives of pray-ers and believers to focus our lives, to redeem every moment that we can. And sometimes that’s to intercede deeply and from the gut. And other times it’s just to take an unscheduled moment and enjoy nature. And time with your kids or your grandkids or your spouse or those in your life. That is as spiritual, by the way, praying in the spirit, you know, deeply interceding. All things can be spiritual. And in every point in time and even in unscheduled moments, there can be an offering of prayer. You can be watching the news. I’ve done that many times. I’ve seen a situation where I’m like, oh my heart, Ugh, just sunk for a family that experienced loss. And you can tell they don’t have a clue. They just had been blindsided by the enemy. And I’ll say, “Lord, enter that situation. Reach those people,” while I’m watching the news!

We’re entering a birth canal of sorts…

So our lives are to be a prayer, to be an expression and an animation of God the Holy Spirit as He moves upon us. And He is moving on the church and on pray-ers and believers everywhere. No longer can we just live randomly and leave things to chance. We’re coming up now where we’re entering a portal, a birth canal of sorts. How many know there are such things? Where things come through a place, a narrow place, a narrowing and things come through that narrow opening and are birthed into something new.

The Internet is a portal, even spiritually where people can receive and experience and go through both negatively and positively. Anyway, I’ll avoid going there. But the point being, that’s an emphasis of the Spirit right now, to teach us to value intercession and the power of decision.

The Lord has been saying, “Get your affairs in order…”

In fact, I heard this the other day. And according to this well-known minister and prophet, he has been hearing this all across the world. This repeated instruction or encouragement or call of the Spirit. And it stuck out to me because this is something we’ve been praying out for much of the last few months in different ways. And I think we’ve even prayed this specifically. But the Lord is saying, “Get your affairs in order. Get your house in order.” Come on now! Just let that hit you in a good way.

I like to say, “Lord, let that smack me upside the head in a good way.” Scripture says that we need to live sober-minded and circumspect. In other words, sensitive and having eyes 360 degrees all the way around our heads, so to speak. But get your affairs in order and be determined to finish well.

“What are you saying, Pastor Ken?”

Are you saying that Jesus is going to return any day? Not exactly, but that could be the case. I do know that this world that we live in is literally filled with signs. In fact, there are signs in the moon, in the sun, and in the stars. And each of those places speak to a different group of people in a different situation. For example, there are signs in the stars that are speaking to God’s inherited people. Or to those that God had promised Abraham that would become his inheritance. He said, look up to the stars and count the stars for this will be a sign of the people. And so there’s a sign for us in the stars. There’s a sign in the moon. There’s a sign in the sun. We live in a world filled with signs that is pointing to the fact that we must get our house and our affairs in order and be determined to finish well.

The coming year will be a valley-of-decision year…

And if I can narrow this down in this season of narrowing, in this season of birthing from old to new, the coming year will be a valley of decision year. A place where there’ll be grace and room and space to make some decisions now. There’s a lot of grace. Remember a couple months back, I talked about the blood moon that occurred in May and how it was a sign that God is extending His scepter of mercy and patience and grace for sure on America for the current season. That we would pray, that we would intercede, that the church would be shaken in a good way and awakened to repent of those things that we have allowed to creep into the church and into our hearts and into our lives that seem subtle, but they are deadly and poisonous and they’re thieves of God’s greater work and plan for you and for me.

Be intentional about what you’re saying…

Because make no mistake about it. Every day on the other side of your obedience to pray, on the other side of your obedience to be present and sensitive to the Holy Ghost, there is a miracle that God desires to perform. There’s a church He desires to plant. There is a life He wants to reroute and change. There’s a situation that’s been dogging your way perhaps for years that He wants to break off of you and birth you into a new season of freedom and liberty and purpose and prayer. So He’s highlighting the coming year, the Jewish or Hebrew year of 5783. Which even numerically speaks to the fact that it’s going to be a year of decision and a year where your proclamations and your declaration and your profession is going to be extremely critical and powerful. So be intentional about what you’re saying.

Our mouths are a portal that releases life… or death!

The Lord’s been kind arresting me lately about even what I say when people ask me, “Ken, how are you doing?” And sometimes I’m sarcastic, or I might joke a little bit. And the Lord’s kind of got up inside my business and arrested me and said, “Don’t be so flippant about what you’re saying.” The Bible’s really clear about our utterance and our words that we should let no just random thing come out of our mouth, no vain things. But that our words should be targeted and focused and faith-filled and worshipful. Your mouth is a portal that releases God, that releases life… or death, right? Life and death are in the power of the tongue and those who speak words of life or words of death will experience and consume the fruit of those words either of life or of death.

You’re a speaking spirit sent into this earth to be a portal…

One way we are a portal, in other words, allowing heaven to come to earth, not just in your life, but in the atmosphere and in the situations and in governments and in our generation is through your mouth.
“That is just really good, Pastor Ken.”

God’s not going to let us ride the fence…
Thank you. I appreciate the encouragement on this Wednesday morning. God is loving and gracious and patient and He will always be so, and He loves His kids. And He is passionate about you. But He is not playing church, nor has He ever played church. He is saying the coming year will be a valley-of-decision year. There will be grace to make defining choices, but God is not going to let us ride the fence. Instead, He’s prompting us to draw a line in the sand and choose to stand with Him in all the right ways … in the content you consume … in the thoughts you think and speak … in the use of your time … in the use of your finances. In all ways, He’s calling us, He’s beckoning us to stand with Him to make choices in this season, to pass some tests, to make right decisions concerning certain things and to align ourselves increasingly so with His plan. And if you don’t know what that is, you just open your heart and say, “Lord, will in me your good pleasure. Give me the will and the want to lead me even subconsciously at times in the path you want me to go.”

It’s really just a narrow place of decision…

I found that even praying in the Spirit gives Him permission to even corral you and move you in places that seem like the Devil, but it’s really just a narrow place of decision and a place where you have to face the issues of your life and soul and not just get by or get through, or comfort yourself with an addiction or some other Christian acceptable thing. I won’t go there. So it’s time to pass some tests to make right decisions concerning certain things and align ourselves with God’s plan. The coming year will be a time when we need to make solid decisions and choose to say, “No, I will not live like that. Instead I choose to live like this.” And by the way, that doesn’t mean you’re going to make a wholesale change and move to Bermuda and buy a beach house. But your whole life changes. It might just be one small tweak in your spiritual life or in your time or in your thought life or in what you’re saying, or your attitude. The Bible says every day adopt a new attitude of mind. You might be one simple decision away from a completely different life. God is able as we pray and open our hearts Him to put His finger on certain things and places and just completely shift the momentum of our emotions, our mindsets, our lives, our finances in a moment of time.

Don’t get mad and just move forward to the next play…

My daughter, Katie, her and the MCA women’s volleyball team went to Rochester last night. They took a bus down there and played. And after I knew she was done playing… I didn’t go cuz I didn’t have three or four hours last night to drive back and forth. But, anyway, I texted her about seven o’clock. She plays JV. I said, “How did things go? How did you play? Did you guys win?” And she told me they won, and it was good. And I’m always looking for truth and examples for things. I’m always wanting to learn. I’m eternally curious. When I asked her how things went, she said things went good. “I did miss two serves,” she said. “But remembered not to get mad at myself. And I moved forward, moved on to the next play.” Which I thought, “Whoa, there’s some real growth in my daughter. Not just as a player, but as a person.” I just thought, that’s awesome. And I thought that’s one of the things God’s putting His finger on in our lives that we would not be all entangled with stuff. I know we have to process stuff. I get that. And you may need to go to a counselor at times and talk to a coach and somebody that you can just unpack things emotionally and mentally in different ways. Certainly! That’s part of our makeup.

But then there are other things we need to choose to just put that aside and let’s move on. Especially concerning things that Jesus has already paid the price for. When you mess up, when you screw up, quickly fess up, confess that, put it under the blood, take full advantage. He is cheering us on every day to take full advantage of the overflowing reservoir of grace and patience and goodness that according to the scripture seems to swallow up. No matter how deep into sin we’ve gone or how great the failure, how difficult the situation or how strong the symptoms are in your body, His grace is designed to swell and always swallow up our mess up’s and our mistakes and give us a fresh start.

Many Christians oppose themselves within themselves…

But as Christians, it’s our low view of God that gets us in trouble. It’s our obsession with ourselves and the failed serve, like in my daughter’s case, or whatever… that’s what gets us off track. But as CS Lewis said, it’s a high view of God that delivers us from 10,000 temporal problems. Just by how you use your thoughts. The Bible says love the Lord thy God with all your mind. Use your mind to worship Him by seeing yourself the way God sees you. And so yeah, many Christians are their own worst enemy because they oppose themselves within themselves. That’s really good. They oppose themselves within themselves. We are our own worst enemy, in other words. But that’s why I like my daughter’s example because she quickly just like, instead of that bad serve becoming focus for her and then she starts to play increasingly poorer as the game goes by, she just compartmentalized that, put that under the blood, and we’re going to move on to the next play. God’s got you! He’s taking care of the sin question once for all and for all time so that we can keep moving forward in prayer, in our daily journey with Him, in our growth to become more and more like Him.

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