 Welcome to morning prayer. What a privilege it is for us, whether we're at home or whether we're here in the prayer room to actually come before the presence of the Lord and prayer is a privilege. It's not just a obligation that we have. It's an incredible privilege to know that when we position ourselves, give our full attention, that the Lord sees us, that he's delighted in us and that he hears us. This is the psalmist's awe and wonder, is that I cried to the Lord and he heard my voice. So this morning, I just wanna encourage us that the Lord hears you, he sees you. And to begin to view prayer, I know you do this, but to begin to view prayer as a holy privilege and an invitation into relationship with him and not a religious obligation, ritual that we need to do to somehow convince God to care. So in 108, David says, my heart is steadfast, O God, and I will sing and make melody with all of my being. Awake, O harp, and leer. I will awaken the dawn and I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples. I will sing praises to you among the nations for your steadfast love is great above the heavens and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. Be exalted, O God, among the heavens, and let your glory be over all the earth, that your beloved ones may be delivered. Give salvation by your right hand and answer. So today, as we set our hearts on a pilgrimage to draw near to the presence of the Lord, let's do just that in our own lives. Let's begin to awaken our own spirit as we awaken the dawn. Let's awaken the morning, the week, this new moment that we have. Let's awaken it with praise. Let's put our total focus upon the steadfast mercies of the Lord. He cares, He's good to us. He's strong, He's powerful, He's mighty, He's able to deliver. He's the God of deliverance this morning. So in a little bit, we're gonna come back and we're gonna spend some time praying and interceding for the persecuted church. So our brothers and sisters who are around the globe, who right now are enduring hardships, some who are not that far from us and some who are on the other side of the world. But the Bible encourages us to pray and intercede for brothers and sisters, so we're gonna do just that. But before we do that, we're gonna minister to the heart of the Lord together. We're gonna go vertical before we go and begin to think horizontally around the globe. So let's, right now, let's just set our hearts on this worship awakening, both the harp and the leer inside of us and give thanks to the Lord and sing praises to Him. Lord, today we draw near to you, we come before you and we say, great is our Lord, great is our God. We're the appraise, Lord, in the midst of your sanctuary, in the midst of our living rooms. In the midst of our trials and circumstances, our disappointments and questions and in the middle of our victories and mountaintops. Trophy rooms, Lord, today we say, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. Lord, you're strong, you're beautiful, you're powerful, wonderful. The God who saves, the God who stretches out your hand moves mountains for us. God who knows every hair on our head and the one who loves us. Jesus, you are the lover of our souls. And so today, we don't draw back, but we draw near. That we come with a song of worship on our lips today, receive it as we worship you today. In the places where that's not true, we say that's what we want to be true. So we're asking you, God, would you give us the ability to love you like we're singing that we love you? Holy spirit that dwells within us, would you teach our hearts to cry out, I'm a father and to love you a greater way in an undivided way, Lord, with our whole hearts, no restraint, no reserve in us. Lord, but with reckless abandon to love you to fully trust you. Adonai, we love you, trust you, help us to trust you more. Help us to love you more. You loved us first, so that we might love you. You awakened love inside of our hearts so that we might return it back to you and praise. That we might return it back to you, our worship. So Lord, we turn our hearts to you this morning, our source. You alone are our refuge, our fortress, our strong place, the tower that we run to. You alone are our home. It's like the sparrow finds her home in the temple like Saul many four says, Lord. We find our home in your presence. We look into your face, Lord Jesus, and we trust you. We tremble before you, Father. Holy awe, Lord, today with the power of the Holy Spirit, would you examine us? See if there's any place within us that's not pleasing to you. See if there's any place, any corner of our soul where darkness is not allowed the light to penetrate. Lord, every corner, every nook, every room flooded with truth so that we can really love you with our whole hearts. We don't want this to be lip service, Father, we truly bring all things under the leadership of you, Jesus, Lord and Master. So every place, Lord, that you might see that, little place right there, you've not submitted it to me. Holy Spirit, would you eliminate it in our hearts this morning so that we can surrender it? Every fear, every belief, every question, everything that maybe we put a reserve sign on and said, no, I'm keeping this just in case or this belongs to me or today, it's all on the table so that we can really worship you with our whole hearts. God, we want our hearts completely aligned with yours. From the rising of the sight to the setting of the same, Lord Jesus, your name is worthy to be praised. The Holy Spirit this morning to just illuminate any aspect of your life, your moment, your heart right now, and then surrender it. Come back, let's just sing that chorus one more time. Several moments that we have together and to intercede on behalf of the persecuted church this morning at this particular moment, as well as in many other parts of the world, our dear brothers and sisters in Myanmar, several other people groups that are in Yangong and Chin State, other places are experiencing a increase of persecution. Some of our dear friends that we support as a church over there, can't go into too much detail but there's increased pressure that's now affecting some of the kids. It's almost to take several moments, not just in Haiti and Myanmar, but those are two hotspots right now in India as well. But we're gonna pray and we're gonna do what Peter tells us to do, which is to pray for our brothers and sisters around the world that are enduring hardship, knowing as it says in verse Peter five, it says, stand fast, resist infirmity or faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brother, by the brotherhood throughout the world. So we're gonna pray for them, intercede for them. Father today, we stand on the wall and we stand in the gap for our brothers and sisters. Lord, some that we know and some that we've never met today, that we're standing in the gap on their behalf and we're praying Father for those who will find themselves in hot zones like Haiti right now, where there's seemingly civil war and violence throughout the entire nation. So we stand right now and we pray, Lord God who is our defender, would you watch over the churches, the ministries, the NGOs, the orphanages, the medical clinics, the leaders, both national leaders and missionaries from other nations that have given their lives to move to Haiti today, to serve the beautiful Haitian people, the people that you died for and paid for with your own shed blood, Lord Jesus, a nation that in many ways has a dark past connected to witchcraft and voodoo. But Lord, you said that even when darkness covers the earth, you said the glory of the Lord would appear, which rest and would shine upon your people and dispel the darkness. So we're praying Father and we're thanking you for those who beyond fear, beyond convenience have sacrificially stepped onto the soil of Haiti to bring the good news and to serve those who are sick and forgotten left behind. The Lord we're praying today in this hour is a great trial that Lord you would be their defender today. Lord that you would be the shield around them and around their families, around the orphanages, around the medical clinics, around the churches. And that Father you would right now dispatch angelic armies. We know they're already there, but Lord would you strengthen the resolve of the believers and surround them with angels that deliver them from harm's way just as Paul and Silas found deliverance out of the prison by supernatural source. Lord we're praying for supernatural deliverance right now. Deliverance from warlords, deliverance from gangs, deliverance from danger, deliverance from demonic oppression. Deliverance right now Father, supernaturally you would deliver them, protect them, bring them out of harm's way today. And we're praying that not only in Haiti but Father and Myanmar, we're praying Lord that what the enemy has meant for evil. Lord would result in the diaspora of the gospel, the scattering of the gospel throughout the land of Myanmar and the surrounding areas that Lord, the gospel is strong and your leaders and your followers are strong in the Lord and we're praying that as they come and go that the gospel would become like living that fills and floods the entire nation and region of Myanmar and Burma and that Lord you would defend them. We're asking for protection right now, shield about brothers and sisters there in India as well. In a way that only you can do, you said I the Lord will be your wall of fire. So we're praying Lord be a wall of fire around our brothers and sisters in these hot zones in these dangerous zones in these persecuted places right now. Strengthen them and protect them. We pray in Jesus' name. If you're here in the prayer room, I want you to break up in groups of three and four around the room and we're gonna take the next five minutes and I want you to get together and listen. How would you pray in a closed nation and the people you love the most lives were threatened? How would you pray? Well that's how I want you to pray. I want you to pray specifically for orphans. Those who are in difficulty right now, I want you to pray for provision, protection. God says he's the defender of the fatherless. And I want you to pray for those who are caring for orphans. Right now, it's specifically Targa zones are Haiti, India and Myanmar. So if you're at home, you may not have people to get into a circle with but you pray by yourself for the next five minutes specifically over orphans in Haiti and Myanmar and in India. We're gonna take five minutes to do that. If you have somebody else in the house with you, pull them in and say join me for the next five minutes. Help me pray for this. Pray for protection and provision. God's supernatural touch upon us and these nations. The ones that we've named and even the ones that we don't name. But you know Lord, those that are living in lands where it's illegal to be a Christian, where they may have even been imprisoned for their faith. I'm thinking of Iran. I'm thinking of Afghanistan, the Middle East, these nations where brothers and sisters that we know and can't even name are right now in prison in Iran for the gospel. We're praying Father, for you to be near. Paul said, no one stood with me except the Lord. We're praying Father, would you stand with these brothers and sisters? Give them strength in the midst, pull afflictions. Give them endurance God, supernatural endurance to not faint, but to be strong. A strength that only comes from your Holy Spirit. The Lord give them boldness in this hour right now. Lord we're praying even as the church in the midst of persecution in Acts four had great boldness to continue to proclaim the gospel even when they had been threatened, thrown in jail, even when their very lives had been threatened. God, they continue to preach the gospel with great boldness and we're praying for that. Praying for the brothers who are right now in Iranian prisons and they're asking, don't pray that I get out. Pray that God would give me boldness to proclaim the gospel right here in my chains. So we agree, we say, yes Lord, God, great boldness, great anointing, great opportunity to reach those who are in captivity as well. Lord, we're praying for provision right now. Right now at this very moment, we can't hear the prayers of the saints who are in jail or persecution, but you do. And we respond to those prayer requests. We're saying, Father, fill them with great boldness today beyond themselves, beyond just the adrenaline, beyond just the excitement, Lord, deep conviction of boldness. Lord, that you would strengthen their hands, strengthen their resolve. We're praying for their physical bodies, God. Many of them have been beaten. Many of them bodies, they bear the stripes and the scars of the gospel. We're praying, Lord, would you give them physical strength this morning? And even provision, Father, many are crying out for food. Many are crying out for sustenance, care for people, Lord, we're praying for miraculous provision, God. Generosity and provision from places that they make no sense. But Lord, you are the God who is all wise, the God who is Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides the one who brought water out of a rock, the one who brought manna out of nowhere, the one who brought birds who flew in to the tribes of Israel and provided them. Lord, you are able. So we're asking, Father, would you provide, give them everything that they need today? And Lord, we're praying for a way of escape for those who are trying to escape. Paul said that the Lord delivered him from the mouth of lions. God, would you deliver the saints, leaders, children, pastors, expats, missionaries, directors who are right now trying to get away from harm, trying to lead others into safety. God, right now deliver them from the mouth of the lion, deliver them from evil men, deliver them from those who would do harm to the gospel. Lord, not one hair of their head shall be harmed outside of your hand. So protect them right now, Father, and bring for a wall of fire and endurance and boldness in this hour today, Jesus. Not in our own strength or in our own name, but Lord, we ask it in the name of Jesus, the high priest of our faith, the apostle of our faith, the good shepherd, the one who said he would never leave us nor forsake us. So we're asking that today. Lord, we're asking you today for their daily bread, the name of the resurrected glorified Messiah, Jesus, kidding Jesus' name, amen. Thank you for joining us, especially if you're here in the prayer room, those of you at home online, would you continue to pray? Make that a part of your regular daily prayer routine that you pray for your brothers and sisters who you don't know but are in some of the most difficult areas of the world. Let's keep our heart connected to the nations of the world as well. God bless you, have a great day.