Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Pastor Ken…
Good morning, everyone. Good to see you on this Wednesday morning. Hope you’re doing well.
The principle of “the ask…”
I want to remind you of a principle we see in God’s Word. In particular, I want to remind you of what I call the “principle of the ask.” It’s simple. It’s straightforward. But I think it’s something we need to be reminded of as pray-ers, as believers—the principle of the ask.
Jesus states in the Gospel of John 16:23, “And in that day, you will ask me nothing. Most assuredly I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you. Until now you’ve asked nothing in My name. Ask and you will receive that your joy may be full.” I love that! And I think there’s something important here in that God is wanting us to level up, or step up, in our responsiveness in asking Him for things. Not just for ourselves.
Dr. Yonggi Cho…
When I was 18 years old, I discovered this principle. One of the teachers I learned from was Dr. Yonggi Cho, who talked about the prayer of faith, asking God for things that you need in your life. And that’s kind of where I cut my teeth where I learned how to pray. Eventually, I realized I didn’t have to pray so much for myself because I began to walk in God’s abundance and walk in God’s law of faith, in the law of sowing and reaping.
I learned how to ask when I had a lot of basic needs. One particular day, I desired a chair. I was a college student and didn’t have a whole lot of furniture. I wanted a particular chair. And I learned from Dr. Yonggi Cho, when you pray the prayer of faith, when you employ the “principle of the ask,” be as specific as you can be. I mean, certainly there are some things that we seek God and we let the Holy Spirit coach us as far as what to pray for. We don’t know how to pray oftentimes as we should. And so we lean on our heavenly prayer language. But then there are things that we desire, or things that we know in our hearts that God wants or we want in some way.
I released my faith with a particular request…
And so on a particular day, I released my faith and prayed for a particular chair, a particular color, a particular style. And in fact, I journaled it. I released my prayer of faith to the Lord. I think I even planted some seed financially in some way. Then one day, I was coming back from a job with a coworker and friend and there was a garage sale going on right next door. We drove by and I said, “Mike, there’s my chair!” I saw the chair because I had prayed specifically for a specific color, specific style. It wasn’t a big deal. It wasn’t a lot of money because I was a college student going to the University of Minnesota. But it was significant to me, and it impressed upon me the power of the principle of “the ask.”
God, in many ways, gives us a blank check…
…not to run amuck and be selfish necessarily. But He’s given us a blank check to ask. He almost double-dog dares us, if you will, in the scriptures to ask. We have more authority and more rights and privileges as sons and daughters of the most high God than we recognize and that we give ourselves credit for. We didn’t do it. But He bestowed it on us.
The only way you can fail is if you stop praying…
Jesus Himself in the gospel of John is saying, “ask that you may receive.” One particular verse says, “ask that you may receive that your joy may be full.” So there is enjoyment in answered prayer. And so understand this, that the only way you can fail is if you stop praying, that God won’t answer 100% of the prayers you don’t pray or things you don’t ask for.
Our prayers give Jesus an invitation…
When we start asking God to move on the earth… Let’s kind of zoom out globally here. When we start asking God to move on the earth, we are giving Him a legal right, or invitation, to bring His will to pass. So therein lies the inner working between the Head of the church of Jesus and His body in the earth. Our prayers give Him an invitation. In fact, they give Him a legal right to do His will on planet earth when we ask.
But oftentimes He doesn’t have an invitation. Oftentimes, we don’t ask. So therefore, we go without. And we don’t see the reality of His will in our lives, in our nation, in our homes, in our schools, in the body of Christ. Because the church is not asking! It’s so easy to shift over into self-effort, into religious works and duty, into being distracted and worried about what we see and what’s not working or what didn’t happen.
Yet God calls us to a place of intimacy with Him…
…a place of connection and relationship with Him, where we can be inspired by His over-abundant grace, inspired by His power and greatness and goodness, and the reality of His Word, and have moments of clarity where we realize, “Oh! You mean I just need to ask?” Yes! Ask that you may receive that your joy may be full. Where there’s something as simple as a need in your life or something as you know large as revival for America or a particular nation.
Let me read this again…
When we start asking God to move on the earth, we are giving Him a legal right or invitation to bring His will to pass. Even though there are things God wants to do that may pertain to your life, may pertain to your church, your nation, et cetera, even though there’s things He wants to do, things He said should or would happen, it takes someone going to Him in prayer and asking Him to create the reality of His plan in the earth and fulfill His intention in a situation. It’s our job to find out what God wants to do and give Him a legal invitation to move in the earth. The earth has to do something before heaven can respond.
Not only a book of promises, the Bible is also a book of prayer…
And if you’re wondering what to ask for, let me remind you of this. The Bible is a book of promises. As well, it’s a book of prayer. While your Bible should be well read, it should also be well prayed. In other words, our asking starts with His promises. The scripture reads that God knows, even from a very practical sense, what you have need of, whether it’s finances or healing or wisdom about a particular situation, He knows.
“So I shouldn’t have to ask, should I?”
No, the Bible says to go ahead and ask. Even though He knows and has provision for you, He states “ask.” Because there’s something about that that allows Him to operate and function and release heaven’s resources into our earth realm.
Mark Brazee’s book, “Processing the Plan of God…”
Let me read something to you from a chapter in Mark Brazee’s book, “Processing the Plan of God.” He has a chapter entitled, “Doing Business With God,” where he states, “I heard a statement from a well-known minister years ago, and it has stayed with me for a long time. Quoting John Wesley, this minister said, ‘It seems God is limited by our prayer life, that God can do nothing for mankind unless someone asks Him.’ Someone will say, ‘You can’t limit God.’ But yet the children of Israel limited God. Psalm 78:41 states they turned back and tempted God and limited the holy one of Israel. Of course, if you go and read the backstory about that situation, you’ll find that their words were stout against the Lord.
“Because God uses your voice, your ability to articulate, you’re called a “speaking spirit” for a reason. Firstly because you were created in the image of God and before God does anything He speaks. He voices it. He said, ‘Let there be light. Let there be the firmament. Let there be the flora and the fauna.’ And then there was. And even today, God speaks. That’s why we listen for His voice, because when we hear His voice, we can connect with His intention. And we can say the same thing. That’s what faith is, really. Faith is saying the same thing that God has said about your situation. From His book and to your heart.
Mark Brazee goes on to say…
“If the children of Israel limited God, don’t you suppose it is possible for us to limit Him? It is possible to limit God. It is possible for God’s will not to come to pass. ‘How can that be,’ someone will ask. God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 2nd Peter 3:9. Yet people die and go to hell every day. People limit God by not stepping into His plan for their lives. And can I just say, one of the very first steps in the plan of God for each of us is to consecrate our mouths, to not just be casual or flippant about what we say. Because the truth of the matter is, everything you say is a prayer.
A definition of prayer by a young communist…
There was a communist young man from China many years ago who was asked… he didn’t even know if he could be a Christian because he was a communist. He asked this missionary one day, “Can I be a Christian? Can a young communist be a Christian?” And he said, “Absolutely, yes.” And this young missionary asked this young communist man who had recently converted to Christianity what he thought the definition of prayer was. And he said something to the effect that, “Isn’t it, after you’ve spoken all day long, you can say amen?” In other words, everything you say, the body of your language all day long is either working for you or against you. It’s either releasing the hand of God because you don’t realize that it’s prophetic and it’s prayerful.
Prayer is just saying what God says…
So consider that. God is looking for a people who will say what He’s saying. Agree with Him. That’s what prayer is. It’s agreeing with God. Somebody once said that prayer is simply God looking over the banisters of heaven, looking down upon His people and seeing His Wod reflected back to Him, seeing His promises reflected back to Him. That’s why we yield to Him. That’s why we pray in the Holy Spirit. Because as we do so, we connect with the heart and intentionality and will of the Father. And we start picking it up. We start interpreting it. We start getting certain desires.
Pay attention to the themes in your heart…
Pay attention to what’s going on in your soul. Pay attention to themes in your heart. I don’t mean themes in your circumstances or themes in your flesh or themes in regard to fear, but I mean themes in the interior of who you are. God is transmitting. The Bible is very clear. The Holy Spirit comes to reveal, to transmit, to disclose the will of God, to grant new perspective, to grant prayers.
Well those prayers often emanate from those themes, the recurring things in your heart. If somebody keeps coming up in your heart, pay attention to that. A particular person or an image or a situation, lift it up to Him. That could very well be the Holy Spirit saying, “I need you to pray for so and so. I want you to pick up the mantle of prayer and pray about this situation in your nation, to pray about a particular country.”
God is not limited to our intellect…
He is transmitting supernatural knowledge. And oftentimes they’re recurring themes in our heart. Pick up on those. Lift those things up to the Lord. You may have nothing, but “Lord, I just see my friend Joe in my heart. I lift up Joe today.” That might be all the utterance you have, but if you’ll yield to it and lift it up to Him, then more inspiration to pray will come. If you’ve recently been baptized in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues, you may only have a couple of words. But just like your known language, if you’ll yield and give place to it and practice it, you’ll get more vocabulary. There’ll be a greater flow.
The same is true for prayer…
Prayer is something you have to practice. And as you yield to it and practice it, the body of your prayers, the language on the inside of you expands and grows and increases.
But this chapter goes on to say…
“People limit God by not stepping into His plan for their lives. According to John Wesley, God can do nothing for mankind unless someone asks Him. That statement blows apart the thinking of most theologians. They think that a sovereign God can do anything He wants to. And if something doesn’t happen, it is because God doesn’t want it to happen. But when a man like John Wesley who knew God and took revival everywhere he went, said ‘God can do nothing for mankind unless someone asks Him.’ We better take a closer look to find the truth in this statement.
“I began to study along these lines in the Bible. Remember our prayer life will never go any further than our word life.”
Well, that’s a word for somebody this morning.
“Remember, the Bible is a book of promises, but it’s also a book of prayer. You want your prayer flow to increase? Increase your Word flow. It’s raw material for praying. Because when you feed on the Word, when you meditate on the Word, you are a recipient of the God kind of faith. And that faith enables you to pray with confidence knowing that you’ve received the answer upon when you pray.
He says, “As I went through the Word, I noticed how many times God told us to ask. Zechariah 10:1, ‘Ask you of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain.’
“So the Lord shall make bright clouds and give them showers of rain to everyone grass in the field.”
You need some rain? Ask!
You need some situations to turn around? Ask!
You need healing? Command! Because commanding is a form of prayer.
The Bible says concerning my sons and daughters command ye Me. We know the Word concerning healing and concerning demonic entities. We know God’s will. We can have confidence in it. So you can command that sickness to bow its knee to the name of Jesus. You can command harassing spirits, deceptive lying spirits who seek to ensnare us and slow us down and cause us to go around another emotional up and down mountain. You can command them to cease in their maneuvers. There shouldn’t be a day… I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… that goes by when we are not binding and loosening, deploying the prayer of binding and loosening.
So he goes on to say…
“If God wants rain, why doesn’t He cause it to rain? Again, In Psalm 2:8, He says we have to ask. “Ask of Me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thy inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.” So, hint, hint! Here’s a prayer we can pray right there. There’s something we can ask for: “Lord, you said in your Word, you would give me the heathen, the ones that are far from you as even my inheritance as your son and your daughter.”
Yeah! Ask for that. I double dog dare you!
I just believe this morning, God is increasing, expanding your mindset and your heart to step out on some new ground and begin to ask for some things that go beyond yourself. I guarantee you’ll see more of your own needs taken care of if you’ll step out on the ground of what is on the Father’s heart and begin to pray, begin to ask what His Word states and what you know He desires in a situation.
Hint, hint, that’s your cue…
If you’re frustrated about something you see in society, in government, in the workplace, in your community, with your family, don’t let that just be an event session or where you just gripe and complain. No! Instead, channel that frustration. See that as a theme that, “Okay, that keeps coming up. I get frustrated about that.” Well then hint, hint! That’s the Holy Spirit saying, “Here’s your sign.” Here’s your cue to step into what doesn’t seem to be right. Where there’s injustice, where there’s unrighteousness, where there’s clearly a lack of God’s will. And as an intercessor, as a pray-er, as one called to ask, begin to ask! Begin to contend. Begin to say, “Lord, this ought not be so.”
The prophet Daniel had to ask…
Wasn’t it Daniel who was paging through the texts of ancient scripture long ago and came upon a passage that had a very specific timeline concerning the children of Israel, that in fact it was time for them to be set free from the bondage that they found themselves in, that in the promise and plan of God, there was a full release and a jubilee and a deliverance from the hands of their enemies. And it was now according to the timetable of the ancient scriptures.
And the Bible says that Daniel set himself with sackcloth and ashes to fast and to pray and say, “God, your Word says such and such, but I’m not seeing it in my current reality or in my nation or in my own household. How can this be? Let your promise, let your Word, let the prophetic-ness of your heart and intention come to pass in my time, in my generation, in my city, in my nation.”
This is our modus operandi…
That’s the modus operandi we should be functioning in. That should be our daily mode of operation. That’s what the Latin modus operandi means: mode of operation. Or how we should roll. We’re not here to complain. We’re not here to Twitter or post about it. “Oh, this is horrible and this is bad, and this is sad.” No! God has called us to change what we’re seeing with our praying, with our decreeing. Let me finish what Mark Brazee writes here in this passage of this chapter.
He goes on to say…
“They think that a sovereign God can do anything He wants to do. And if something doesn’t happen, it’s because God doesn’t want it to happen. But when a man like John Wesley who knew God took revival everywhere, he said God can’t do anything for mankind unless someone asks Him. We better take a closer look and find the truth in that statement.
It goes on to say here in Psalm 2:8, “Ask of me and I shall give you the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.” Some will argue if God wants to reach the nations and the heathen, why does He say, ask? Why doesn’t He just do it? After all, He’s God. Notice what Jesus Himself said in verses 37 and 38 of Matthew. Actually in verse 35, it says, “And Jesus went about all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion on them because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. Then saith He unto His disciples, The harvest truly is plentious, but the laborers are few. Pray you therefore that the Lord of the harvest, that He would send forth laborers into His harvest.
“We were ministering along these lines in another country a few years ago. After the service, one of the missionaries came to me and said, ‘I finally got it.’ Got what? I asked. He explained, ‘I have been writing letters to everyone I can think of to tell them I need laborers and to please send anyone who can come and help.’ I finally realized I’ve been talking to the wrong persons. I learned today that if I want laborers, I need to talk to the Lord of the harvest and ask Him to send laborers.’
“Jesus said the harvest is plenteous and the laborers are few. But we still have to ask the Lord of the harvest to send the laborers into the fields.
I have noticed throughout the Bible, if God wants something done, He tells us to ask for it. There’s that principle of the ask right there.
James 4:2 says, “You have not because you ask not. Ask and you shall receive that your joy may be full.
