Pastor Ken…
Well, good morning, everyone. Good to see y’all on this Wednesday morning.
God is intentional in all that He does…
God is very intentional. He is the most intentional being in all the universe. You better believe that. And so He doesn’t do things by accident or because He has a little extra time. Or He’s taking a break from creating some planet somewhere or something. He’s chosen to be here. He is here. He is in you. He is in me. He is intentional. And He is passionate about what He’s doing in your life and what He’s doing in the church and in America and around the world.
That means He will fulfill His promises and lead you on a trajectory…
And so, just know that this morning, He’s going to be faithful. He’s going to be true. His promises, the Bible reveals are “yes and amen.” In other words, they will be accomplished. They will be revealed. They will come into fullness. Don’t stop believing. Stay with Him. He’s taking you somewhere on purpose. He’s taking us as the body of Christ somewhere. We’re on a path. We’re on a trajectory. And it’s onward and upward into God, into a place of fullness, into a place of wholeness, into a place where we become trophies of His glory and goodness and the power that was released in and through the resurrection of Jesus. So aren’t you glad that we get to serve such a God as this, such a Heavenly Father?
So it’s incumbent upon us to feed our faith…
And, I know these are things we probably all know, but how many of us are reminded that faith is not static? It’s not stationary. Faith ebbs and flows. And so it’s incumbent upon us as pray-ers, as believers to feed our faith, to stir up our faith, to remind ourselves of the things that we’ve learned lest at any time we let them slip.
I was reminded of this foundational passage in Romans 10:17. It says this: “So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” Hearing and that is in the continuous present sense in the original Greek. Hearing and hearing and continually hearing. So that our faith can be boosted. Our faith could be energized. Our faith could continue to grow. That is one of the most foundational habits of a pray-er is to be a student of the Word, to be one who takes it upon him or herself to feed your faith, to develop your faith through the hearing of the Word, through the speaking of the Word, through putting ourselves in remembrance that He is at work in the earth, that He is at work through our prayers, that He is at work watching over His Word to perform it.
So don’t give up but continue to stir your heart with words of faith…
In fact, the Word goes as far to say that not one word of God will go without results, without producing a God-ordained positive result. He is active and alert in your life and in your prayer journey to watch over and work to fulfill with the angelic ranks with God the Holy Spirit Himself at attendance, standing by you, whether you’re beside your bed at the midnight hour or walking out on a lonely trail at three o’clock in the afternoon, or here in Morning Prayer. Wherever you are, God is with us. And He is for us. And He is intent upon working out and bringing us through to that place He’s called us to next. Ultimately to Himself in heaven. And so I just want to encourage you in that this morning. Don’t give up. Be determined to stir your heart with words of faith and build your faith. Be determined to make space for prayer and keep praying and don’t quit. It’s as simple as that because He’s at work.
Man went to heaven and Jesus showed him the effect that prayer has…
I’ve shared this story before, but it’s such a great word picture. It was a story that came from a gentleman who had died and went to heaven and had some conversations with Jesus. And on this one instance, Jesus was talking to him specifically about prayer and the potential and the importance of prayer, specifically praying in the spirit. Because when you pray in the spirit, things begin to happen, maybe not in our timetable or instantly like we think always. But trust me, prayer sets things in motion. As we said before, prayer paves the way, builds a highway for our God. I’m going to read something this morning. It talks about that because we’ve been praying a lot about the glory of God. We’ve been paving and we’ve been preparing some pathways, some highways for our God in this church and in the move of God that is to come and that is happening and precipitating even now around the world. We’re paving a way for the glory of God to come in these last days.
Jesus used a nuclear blast to illustrate how prayer spreads out like waves…
But this gentleman went on to say that Jesus took him in the spirit out to this desert place. He thought maybe a place like Nevada or the eastern part of California out to the desert where they tested nuclear devices back in the forties and fifties. And he was high up in the realm of the spirit and Jesus motioned to him to direct his attention across the desert, where he witnessed a nuclear detonation on the floor of the desert. And while that was intense and really awe inspiring to this man, his attention of course was drawn to the giant plume that began to rise up from that nuclear blast higher and higher 50, 60, 70,000 plus feet into the sky. But Jesus then said, “Now notice what’s going on along the ground.” And he saw something that was almost invisible, but he could tell that there were some waves going on spreading out 360 degrees across the landscape. And that was the invisible shock wave of a nuclear blast. And Jesus used that in that moment as a word picture, as an analogy for what happens when we begin to [speaks in tongues] when we begin to pray in the Holy Spirit, in other tongues, when we begin to pray period, how it spreads out and it gathers momentum and it rearranges and realigns the very landscape as it spreads out from that epicenter of that initial point of ignition.
Prayer is ignition is heaven…
It is heavenly God-ordained supernatural ignition of heaven ignited in the earth realm and releasing the power and potential of God spreading out. Just like somebody once said, you cast a pebble into a pond. It makes an initial impact, but then it spreads out to touch every shore. And so just be encouraged in that this morning. If nothing seems to be changing, whether it’s something you’re praying on a national or international level, whether it’s a personal situation or set of circumstances, just know that just behind the veil of this natural realm, there is activity. There are angels that are at work and are encouraged and propelled to work even more so as we pray. The Bible promises that God grabs hold of us and He co-labors with us in that place of prayerfulness, in that place of devotion, in that place of uplifted hands even in worship. Because worship is one of the highest forms of prayer. In that place, God is making a difference and He is producing change. And it will show up at the appointed time if we will not grow weary in well doing.
You can get addicted to prayer…
So stay at your post. Don’t grow weary. Goodness gracious. I think there are many times when God gives us quick responses to things we pray. I can remember one of the things that got me addicted to prayer. How many of you know there are things you can get addicted to in a good way, and you can’t have enough of it. And it’s good and there are no side effects or withdrawals to it. One of those is prayer and the presence of God. God designed for us to become addicted to Him and to His presence and to a place of prayer.
“He had me at hello…“
And when I was a young person in high school and college and I got a hold of the teaching on prayer and faith in particular and I realized that I could talk to God, and lo and behold, He would talk back to me. Whoa! That’s just set me in motion. And just … “He had me at hello.” God had me when He talked back to me and said, “hello.”
I began to pray simple prayers of faith…
But then I began to pray really simple prayers of faith. Ask and you shall receive that your joy may be full. Whatsoever things you desire when you pray, believe that you receive them and you shall have them. Well, I began to pray for really simple things in high school and in college. And lo and behold, those things showed up. I prayed very specific prayers, by the way. Very specific prayers. Practical things that I needed down to colors and certain things that I needed in different ways. And sure enough, in my due season, those things showed up in my driveway, showed up in my life, and in my journey. And I saw that there was a very real connection with my heart and heaven. My heart and the Holy Spirit and what He wanted to bring to me and through me. I think that’s something that’s lost. We should pray specific prayers when we know of something specific that we need or that even we desire. Because God wants to give you the desires of your heart. Amen.
God gives you the desires of your heart, and He also puts His desires for you in your heart…
And in many ways, He’s also putting His desires as we walk with Him in our hearts. And over time and as you mature and as you walk and journey with Him in prayer, more and more, your desires become His desires. Hence your prayer life becomes more and more effective, even on a large scale. So God answers prayer. Make no mistake about it. God produces change through prayer. He reveals His purposes through prayer. He brings about His plan through prayer. He sets lives and callings and motion through prayer. He’s orienting your life and course correcting your life through prayer. Prayer is your ability to yield yourself to Him, put yourself in His very hands so that He can course correct you or so He can tweak you. He can adjust you. He can set you in motion to be at the right place at the right time to experience an unprecedented level of favor and goodness and purpose and meaning in Him.
Prayer is the divine portal…
Prayer! Prayer is your divine portal that is available to you and open to you through Jesus. Because Jesus is the portal. He said, one day I am the door and I invite you to step through me each day. And when you step through that door, you step through the unlimitedness that He brings, the hope and the wisdom and the timing. So many things just relate to timing. And when you step through that portal, you step into a different place where God aligns and times things and reveals things and brings things to you and through you. Through rest. Because as well in that door of relationship and that door of that portal of prayer, there is rest for your soul.
“Ken, why are you emphasizing this?”
Because this is an hour when we must pray. There has never not been an hour when we weren’t supposed to pray, but if there ever was an hour, God is calling the church to pray and engage with Him. It is now! Yes, to know about prayer, but to actually make time and space and place for Him.
God will cause you to step through a portal of prayer to pray about the future…
One of the things I was thinking about too, and I know we’ve been doing a lot of praying things out, praying the future out, and then one of the things that stepping through that portal of prayer allows us to do is it allows us to go ahead of things in time to pray out things in advance, which is really one of God’s high and great purposes for prayer. We’re grateful that we can go into emergency tongues when we don’t know what to do, or we’re in a crisis situation. But really God wants to lead us in a level of maturity where we’re praying things out, perhaps even years in advance. And I’ve been in situation in prayer groups where I sense that we were praying things out in another dispensation. How many of you know God is not limited by even a dispensation? He’s not limited by time or space or any natural thing that is defined by this world. His ways are higher than our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. But He doesn’t say we can’t know those thoughts of those ways. Instead, He just invites us to step through the door of relationship with Him, to step through the portal of prayer and engage with Him so that we can align and become more familiar, more cognizant on a daily basis of what His intents and purposes are.
John Lake said this about prayer…
I was thinking of this too. John Lake said many years ago that praying in the spirit was the making of his ministry. And I have to say for myself and maybe this is the case for you looking back. My life is the result of prayer. Not just because I received answers in the financial arena, or I received an answer in the way of a new car when I needed a car in college, down to the very color and the fact that it had a sunroof and a great stereo that I’d asked for as a 19-year-old kid. And sure enough, God brought me one. But because I’ve seen progression and transformation, not just on … well, I’m grateful for the financial and the practical things that God manifested through prayer of my life. But I’m even more grateful for the work He’s done in me. I think of what I was, who I was as a graduating high school senior, even though I had been a Christian already up to that point my whole life. I look at how He’s journeyed with me all through the years to save my soul. I don’t mean salvation. I mean transformation in who I was on the inside, the struggles I had, the insecurities I had, the pain and the brokenness that I had on the inside. That’s why I often say God wants to do a great work “in you” before He can do a great work “through you.” That what you’re becoming today and every day will determine where you’re going tomorrow. And prayer is a great opportunity to step through that portal and into the operating room of God the Holy Spirit and let Him imprint us with wellness in our soul, imprint us with healing for our minds and our being on the inside.
He wants to stamp us with fresh oil and new wine and the breath of heaven that brings new life and new outlooks and perspective and hope eternal springing forth from us inside. So I could look back and say, you know what? There are some hard places in my journey. Like I’m sure you’ve experienced. But I’m so glad that I didn’t grow weary. I’m so glad that I have continued and stayed the course and continued to pray. Because prayer, as you stay with it, produces spiritual momentum in your prayer life. And I don’t have time to teach on this right now, but it does give you a greater audience with God. Where eventually you can get to a place where God will do pretty much whatever you ask Him. I mean, obviously in line with His Word and His ways. But I can look back and say the making of my life was produced, of course, out of study in the Word and connection in community but through prayer. Amen.
Staying the course in prayer will strengthen you on the inside…
And while many times there wasn’t a lot happening in me externally. I didn’t see a lot of promotion. I knew that staying the course in prayer was strengthening me on the inside. It was allowing Holy Spirit intimate access to me inside to produce His will and His desires and His want to’s for what He was calling me to do. Even if it was to go through something tough. How many of you know that the Bible says that the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness where He was tested? It doesn’t say that God tested Him in the sense that He was tempting Him. Because we know the Bible is real clear that God doesn’t temp, test, or try. But the Holy Spirit did corral, I like to say, or lead Him into a narrow place where He faced some adversity and overcame. And it produced strength in Him.
Through prayer, God is preparing you…
And so just know that in our journey collectively as the church and individually, a whole lot may not be happening, but perhaps God’s just producing His will and His “want to” in you. He’s shaping your will. He’s strengthening you on the inside so that you can step out and go on the missions field, or you can step out and do what He’s called you to do on another level. Or perhaps He’s strengthening you over a season of time. He’s preparing you so that you can be set free of some things that bind you, that have attached themselves to you from the enemy. And He wants to sever that and break that and free you in your soul. He wants us to be free. He wants us to be whole. So that we can be freed up to flow with Him and go with Him and do what He wants us to do.
So I don’t know how I got off into all that, but I want to encourage you in that. Even if it takes days and months and years and decades, that’s nothing to God and really nothing to us because we’re eternal beings. We’ve got a long ways to go. This is just kindergarten, as I say. So it’s okay if we maybe don’t pass a test. We can take it over tomorrow. Right? And that starts with prayer. God preparing you. God’s strengthening you. God leading you, even in tough seasons where you have to deal with people you don’t like or situations that are uncomfortable where you’re being stretched in your capacities, being expanded. There’s so much more intricacy and mystery to what God is doing in us and through us.
We must trust where He is taking us…
Hence, we must trust Him that He’s a good loving Heavenly Father that always has our best interests. That He knows where He’s taking us. Not only in this lifetime, but in the next. And what needs to be done, not only so that He can do His purposes through us, but also because you’re His child. He wants you to be free. He wants you to be whole. He wants you to be filled in a sense and experience His joy unspeakable. He wants you to have a steady soul. He wants your emotions to not be all jacked up and hijacked by the enemy, but instead useful for what He’s called you to do and useful for your own enjoyment. He wants to redeem your life each and every day more and more. He wants to take back what the enemy stolen on the inside, in your mind, in your body, in your finances, in your family. His intent is to continually take ground, redeem, restore, heal, prepare, expand, enlarge, bless, favor.