Prayer Summary for March 2

Prayed…

Bless You, Lord Jesus
Yielding to Your direction this morning
Thank You, Lord, for Your holy presence
Bless You and honor You, You are worthy

Scripture reference…

Your words were found, and I ate them, And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; For I am called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts. Jer. 15:16 (NKJV)

Pastor Ken Olson shared…

Isn’t that good? Your words were found and I ate them. It just reminds me of perhaps the most, one of the most critical ingredients to prayer and that is faith. And I was just thinking here recently how important my faith has been in my journey and my life as a pray-er. And it is something I think we lose sight of, leave to chance, take for granted and we are not so purposeful about but make no mistake about it, for every follower of Jesus, every pray-er, our faith is of the utmost importance. We have to make a quality decision on the inside even before we come to a place of prayer that we are going to develop faith. In fact, one of our most passionate pursuits should be just that, cultivating, developing, strengthening our faith, like one would till and plant and cultivate and nurture and watch over a garden. The heart is just that; it’s supposed to be a flourishing, thriving (Isaiah says) “well-watered garden,” but it doesn’t happen by accident or osmosis. We have got to nurture it. We have got to water it. We have got to tend to it.

This morning when it comes to prayer… You know years ago, Pastor Lynne used to say “You got to pray to pray.” In other words, live in a place of prayer so when you go to a place of prayer you are already primed so to speak. The pump is primed and you are ready to flow because you are just living in a place of abiding in prayerfulness. Faith is one of the great ways we prepare ourselves to be effective in prayer. I was just reminded of this little word picture of a bulldog that finds a new juicy, savory, aromatic, marrow-ladened bone. A little bulldog named Lucy, let’s say. And when she finds that bond in this word picture, she clamps her jowls around that bone and carries it off somewhere safe and quiet where all of her devotion and affection and desire is focused on that bone and nobody’s going to get that bone away from her even if their life depended on it. Because every ounce of her being is wrapped around that bone. I thought that is really a great picture of how we need to be about not only our relationship with God but particular our faith. I read Jerimiah 15:16 because faith emanates from hearing and hearing and hearing the Word. So much of what enables us to be mighty and effective and Spirit inspired and led in prayer has to do with what we do before we get here, has to do with us being like Lucy the bulldog and being passionate and intentional on a daily basis to hear what we need to hear.

For most Christians, their challenges and problems or insufficiencies lie in what they are hearing or not hearing. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Not having heard but presently and continuously hearing. My goodness, if you just kind of dial into that truth it actually kind of frees you from religion and frees you from the difficulty from being a Christian sometimes. You realize, ok, you mean it’s not all up to me, Lord? Me coming up with the prayer, me trying to be all emotional all in prayer, you mean that’s not all up to me? No, no, really our job is just to hear, wait at the feet of Jesus as I said yesterday, to connect , to abide, to live, to remain, to dwell in close proximity to your heavenly Father and hear what He has to say. And He always is speaking from His Book. He is always speaking in our hearts. That’s what we need to prize, the Word of God. Amen. When we do that, faith grows effortlessly and organically, and as a matter of course so that when we go to pray about a particular need in our family, we go to pray for the election, we go pray for whatever God wants us to pray for this morning, there is substance. Faith is the substance of our prayers, right. Hebrews 11:1 says “Faith is the substance, the title deed of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Faith is the substance of our prayers. It is what we emit. It is what we are here to release.

In fact, in Luke 18, you will find the story of what Jesus shared of the widow woman and the unjust judge. It’s a story about prayer. The context is all about prayer and about being aggressive and tenacious and determined and persistent day in and day out to seek God and to pray. And at the end of Luke 18, Jesus makes this really interesting statement… I just wanted to put something in your heart here for us to flow out of. I am a Word person. My prayer place starts in the Word. Of course, I learned that from Pastor Lynne years and years ago. In Luke 18, Jesus just shares the story about the widow woman who was just persistent in prayer and because she was so, even an unjust judge who neither feared man nor God served her justice, gave her an answer. And in Luke 18:8 Jesus says, He sums it up by saying “I tell you that he will bring about (this unjust judge) justice for them,” for us, so to speak, quickly. And then the punch line is this: “However, when the Son of Man comes (in other words, the context, in the last hour when He returns, when He splits the eastern sky, when the trumpet sounds, when He comes back for us) will He find faith on the earth.” And, of course, because of the previous verses the context of this, the comment of faith, is in other words He is saying will he find faith being released in prayer. Because it is faith that is the substance of our prayers. Faith is the substance initially of the will of God and the plan of God and it is what we come to do on any given morning here or in your prayer place is to release faith.

Not complaining because to complain is to remain. Not griping, not telling God your best sob story thinking that will move Him emotionally or something. No, God is moved by what? By faith. By a man or a woman who will sink his or her heels into the ground into the promise of God and not be moved, not in our strength, not in our ability but in the strengthening ability of hearing and hearing day in and day out the promise of God. Not only hear but speak it as well because the Word spoken to us is also meant to be spoken through us.

The same power that was released in the Word Jesus spoke is released in the words we speak. That’s good isn’t it? And so faith is so important. And I know all of us know this and ascribe to that and embrace and understand that but the scripture reads that we need to give more earnest heed to the things which you have already learned lest at any time we let them slip. Faith is you know that is like the fuel for prayer. You know, Pastor Lynne tweeted something last week. She said “Faith is like a magnet. The larger and the stronger that magnet is, the more it will pull in.” Isn’t that good? In other words, it is attractional. Fear is as well. So faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Fear comes by hearing something else. Dread comes, worry comes, anxiety comes by hearing something else. And in this society of ubiquitous content and voices and broadcasts and podcast and content everywhere at our fingertips it is really easy to hear something else. Maybe five months ago you were in a really strong place of faith and could move mountains with it but today perhaps just because life has happened and distractions have entered in, maybe not so much. See while we may have thought we had this all down a few years ago or a month ago, faith is dynamic. Faith ebbs and it flows depending on what our focus is. And so this morning as pray-ers, I just encourage you guys just to daily harken to the voice of His Word. Know that He is speaking. Be hungry, be desperate, be aggressive, let there be a fire on the altar of your soul for the Word of God. Thy Words were found and I did eat them, the King James says. For Your Word was the joy and the rejoicing of my heart for I am called by Thy name O Lord God of Hosts. You can just hear the salivation spiritually in that author’s voice. The Bible says let the Word dwell richly on the inside of you because it produces faith and faith is what connects us to the will of God. Faith is what connects you to the life of your dreams. Faith is what connects you to God. We are to do all things in what? Faith. But faith is not a matter like stirring up some will power and exerting yourself really hard to believe. Faith flows out of simply waiting at the feet of Jesus, waiting at the feet of His Word and hearing what He has to say about you, about your circumstances, about your situation, about what it is He wants to prompt you to pray about.

And I think that sometimes as pray-ers we get off track and begin to make prayer a work. We become religious. Where we have a form of godliness but there is no power inherit within it because we start doing it out of like I said yesterday out of memory rather than by design. God’s design is that we come and just receive from Him first and then we come and let Him serve us. That’s something that will kind of rattle you and turn some Christians upside down a little bit to understand that what God is most interested in even right now this morning isn’t so much what you can do for Him but He is interested in you knowing and receiving what He can do and has done for you. Remember the work is finished. Hallelujah, isn’t that good? The work is finished. There has been times over the years where I am like I knew I had a prayer project in my heart. I knew God was leading me to a place of prayer and I was ready to gut it out all night in prayer. Then I realized no, no the Lord will prompt me and get up all inside my business so to speak and so no, no your job is to rest right now. Your job is to receive because God can move mountains with just one word. We can’t hardly do anything with a thousand of our own words but with one word He can change the world. Amen.

To get that one word we have to wait. That’s what Jesus said with patience lies power, patient, restful waiting. That’s just a good word for me always in every season that the work is finished. Jesus accomplished, finished the work at the cross so when we come to a place of prayer it’s not a matter of us “oooohhh, God, the world is going to hell in a handbasket.” Well, we do partner with God but remember He is the one to inspire us and lead us and give us the word we are to pray and what we are to do. First and foremost, our responsibility is to hear and hear. Like Mark Hankins said a long time ago: “The most important thing we should be doing on a daily basis is introducing ourselves to our new selves” because we as humans are very forgetful. We have a very short shelf life for things. And so daily, we have to be waiting at His feet. I suppose there is a reason why prayer-ers are supposed to be watchers, partly for themselves so that we come in with the right attitude. Ultimately that is what faith is. Faith is an attitude. It’s more than a catch phrase. It’s more than an acknowledgement. It is an attitude that is born out of the heart of God by the Word of God.

Caleb and Joshua, when they got the word that they were to go into the Promised Land and they said “let’s go up at once and possess the land” and they were unique among thousands and perhaps millions of people of their generation in that they had a spirit of faith, an attitude of faith. The Bible says daily adopt a new or fresh attitude of mind. And that is the attitude first and foremost of faith. That’s ultimately what is going to keep us out of religion and in a place where we are truly alive and living and flowing in what God has for us in prayer and every other arena of life. Amen. Thank You, Father.

Scripture focus…

For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. I John 5:4 (NKJV)
So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. Mark 11:22

Nothing happens until we release our faith. It is faith that connects us to what God wants for us and wants to do through us. You know when I think about Jesus, I think about the fact that when He came onto the scene of this world long ago, He came to inaugurate a whole new way of living, really a revolution and that revolution was “The just shall live by faith.” Fight the good fight of faith the scripture reads… so that you can do what? Lay hold on eternal life, lay hold on the God kind of life, lay hold on the purposes of God this morning that God wants us to pray out and the fight of faith versus the fight to hear and keep hearing day in and day out, to remain in ardent devotion to Him so that when we come to a place of prayer it just flows organically. Amen.

I heard a story not long ago about this guy who is a businessman, wealthy businessman down south somewhere and he had orange groves. One year there was a frost predicted and it was unusual for their part of the country. It was predicted to move in in a couple of days and all the farmers and orange grove owners were freaking out in the community. The frost would be moving in and threatened to wipe out millions upon millions of dollars in orange groves. This one particular man though understood the power of faith at least in prayer. Of course, the circumstances where such and he began to seek God and find the promises that would connect him through his faith to His economy and His protection. He went on to his orange groves and walked around them and prayed that God would protect his orange groves. Well, all the other farms of orange groves thought he was crazy and off his rocker and made fun of him and persecuted him pretty badly but a day later the frost moved in and had its affect and all the other orange grove owners began to fret and wonder how they were going to make it through another year with no orange harvest. What was so interesting was a couple weeks later, this was documented, when you went out to this one man who prayed and released faith in God’s protection and God’s economy and God’s help for him, when you went out there and looked at his several thousands of acres it was as green and abundant as you have ever seen a harvest in the orange country. But all around him on all four sides it was completely dead. Every orange grove on every side was completely toast. What’s interesting was that all those farmers that ridiculed him would later come to him and ask and plead with him that he would pray for their orange groves next time there was a frost that threatened their crop. Isn’t that good?

It is faith released in prayer that connects us to God’s economy, God’s wisdom, God’s ability, God’s help, God’s hand. I heard another story just recently and I can attest to this because I have seen this a number of times in my life in prayer. This man I think was diagnosed with hepatitis and grew worse and worse and ended up in the hospital. The doctors didn’t really have any hope or answers for him. He was a Christian man that ended up in the hospital with nothing to do so he reached for his Bible. Day after day he began to search the scriptures, he began to develop and build up his faith. Then one day, I don’t know if it was a couple months later or 4 or 6 weeks later, he got up one morning and just something up hear drop down into here and he said he just knew in that moment, in that split second he knew he had received his healing. He had prayed certainly but again what made the difference was him hearing about what had already been finished. Amen. The work had already been finished.

Even this morning, God isn’t in heaven wringing His hands and wondering, “Oh my Gosh, what are we going to do about the election, what are we going to do about this or what are we going to do about that. Oh My Gosh, sister Susy has gone off her rocker and is running crazy through the halls and has truly lost it or whatever.” Point being, you know Jesus just had this composure about Him even in prayer, this stability, this firm footedness because He had already been there, done that, bought the T-Shirt and come back as I like to say… because He had been letting the Father minister to Him. His strength came from feeding on the Word and hearing the voice of the Spirit. And so when it was time to pray, when it was time to minister, when it was time to do life, it flowed by faith, God’s faith. We all can quote Romans 12:23 “Received a measure of the God kind and the God quality of faith.” The same faith that created the Cosmos, God’s faith. Mark 11:22 says “Have faith in God.” One translation says have the God kind or God quality of faith. Even the faith I am talking about developing and building up and feeding and nourishing on a daily basis as a follower of Jesus, as a pray-er, isn’t even my faith or your faith, it is His faith. What a gift, a seed of the God kind of faith that created all that is and is still expanding, approaching the speed of light was put on the inside of us when you believed upon Him. He gifted to you. He put it on the inside, on the altar of your soul. For just to remain there behind glass with a plaque that says “here lays a measure of the faith of God.” No, for us to get up every day with a renewed passion and give ourselves to Him, abandon ourselves to His purpose and begin to nourish up ourselves up on words of life and words of faith. So that that seed can grow and rise and become what it needs to become.

Somebody said a long time ago that most Christians live on one cold snack a week but God’s intent is that we would live on at least three hot meals a day spiritually speaking. Why is that? So we could be who we were called to be, spiritual giants. And a lot of people… maybe we don’t announce it but we feel like “well if I am just quiet enough and in the corner over here in the Church and don’t do anything crazy then maybe I won’t draw the enemy’s attention into my life” when really God intends for us to be spiritual giants. Over the years we have prayed from this place. The sleeping giant would wake up.

“Well Ken I am just little old me. I am just a simple person.” That may be on the outside, in the mirror, in the natural reflection but on the inside according to what my Bible says you are somebody. On the inside you are in His image. On the inside He is in you and you are in Him. Jesus died to give us an identical position and possession with our elder brother Christ Jesus. So that just helps me sometime. I just like to use my imagination. Like somebody once said that worry is a misuse of your imagination but faith-filled thoughts and words are a right use of your imagination. Sometimes when I go to a place of prayer, I just remind myself of who I really am. I am a giant in the Spirit. That while on this side of things, we may be just little old us, when we step over and yield to Him and begin to pray and operate in faith, “oh you better look out, Devil, because we have a mighty sword of the Spirit. We have been clothed in the righteous merit of Jesus Himself.” My goodness! We are somebody and we have something. We have given, what’s that phrase? “In possession with the intent to distribute.” If somebody has drugs on them and have charges filed because they had drugs, they were in possession with the intent to distribute. Well this morning and every morning, we come to place of prayer or out to the marketplace, workplace, ministry, whatever you do, you are in possession and you have been given the assignment, the intent to distribute your faith, words of life. Amen. Bless the Lord. Really our vocation is not what we do down the street in the marketplace. Our vocation is dominion but you can’t exercise dominion in the Spirit, in prayer, in your life if you don’t really know who you are and you can’t know who you really are unless you are daily waiting at the feet of the Master and He and His Word are one. I feel like if this was in its rightful place more often in our lives… and I realize that we all ebb and flow at times but if we will embrace and value this even more when we go to pray… I feel like more of our prayer would be shorter and way more effective because we would carry ourselves, we would project ourselves, we would yield ourselves in a way that is completely different than maybe we would when we just see ourselves in and of ourselves as still frail and weak at times and unable. Yea, we are unable… apart from Him we can do nothing. We read that yesterday. But united in one Spirit, filled with the promise of His Word presently and daily and persistently and continuously we rise to the occasion of whatever life brings and whatever faith assignment God gives us.

In Tommy Hicks vision many years ago during the 1950’s Argentine revival that was one of the revelations if I remember correctly that he had was about the sleeping giant and how he was laying prostrate on the ground with all these little imps and little money demon looking things like hiding in the crevasses of this giant body and under its backside. But then this giant began to move and shake and shutter and these cables that were binding it to the ground began to snap and these demon little creatures began to flee as if in horror and terror as the giant began to rise up and stand up. Long story short that giant was the Church… is the Church. Amen. We are the Church this morning of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Head and we are the mighty ones upon the earth. We are the ones inhabited with the Spirit and the presence of God. We are the ones, actually not even Jesus, He is the head, He is the Lord, He is our forerunner, He is our elder brother, He is our Savior but it is us, it is you, it is me who have been delegated the responsibility to exercise authority in this earth realm.

That’s why, one of the reasons anyway, that Jesus said in this earth you will do My works and even greater works when I go to My Father. Because then I can send My Spirit to be in every one of you and then I can send My Word and, of course, then because we are on the earth, we have authority in this earth realm. And the Bible says that essentially that authority is the exercise of power in a given domain, in your life’s domain, in the Church and in the world that we inhabit and we go into later today. Power is resident on the inside of you waiting to be released by faith. It’s almost like the Word of God is a thunderstorm. What’s going on in the atmosphere creates static electricity that builds up, builds up, builds up in the clouds and then (Bam!) lightening discharges that power and it is waiting upon the Lord individually, it is feeding upon His Word, it is hearing what He has to say to us and the revelation of who we are and what we have in Him that builds up power so to speak so that when we go to our place of prayer, so when we go into our daily lives and there is something we need to take care of, authority we need to exercise, it is resident, built up and (Bam!) it is released into the situation to change whatever needs to be changed. Amen.

Continued praying…

Thank You, Lord, for being the head of the Church
That You created us new creatures in You
Magnifying You or the richness of Your presence
Turning our hearts to You, on assignment by You
Grant us utterance today, Father
Arouse the Church from her lethargy
The day is far spent—open up our ears, Lord
Lifting up the mystery of Your Church yet to be revealed
Let the Church take her place now
Awakening in America!
Mercifully shake Your Church, Father
That we would truly be the Church every day
Praying over the vision for the Church that we would be truly the called-out ones
Called to signs and wonders and miracles
Every one, Father!
Breaking up of fallowed ground—supernatural raining and penetration of hearts
Alarms sounding in the souls of leaders—distinct understanding that the Master is calling
Shaking off the weights that beset us
Receiving combinations and orders today
Calling those that are dormant into active duty!
The Master has use of you—all together now
United now, abiding now—under the banner of our Lord
Fresh fire to the Church in Jesus’ name
Yielding to the Spirit of prayer; Holy Spirit, have Your way
Step by step, advancement, added supplies
It is written by the hand of God
It’s an open book
Divine demonstration to prepare—ready the Church and our nation
Economically, politically
Momentum, momentum to the Church!
There is a breaking of the dawn, a new atmosphere
A new receptivity to the work of God
Receiving the blood today over the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ
No weapon fashioned against Your Church will prosper
Motion, Motion, Moving, Moving
No more staying in one place!
Moving where we must go
We lift up the appointed time—help us to receive it
We say “You are responding now!”
We hear the sound! Help us to all hear it
It’s a tuning fork!
Praising You, Father, for Your faithfulness
For watching over Your Word to perform it
We bless and magnify Your precious name!

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