 Good morning everyone. If you're here in the prayer room, let's all stand together as we're starting our day, starting our week in the presence of the Lord and those of you who are joining us from home, welcome. We're so glad that you're taking your place on the wall and a place of ministry to the Lord first and foremost, but then also standing in a place of intercession. It's one of the high callings that we have in the Lord is to not just be people that are thoughtful, but it's to be people that are prayerful as well. Psalm 132, it's the Psalm that David, it highlights David, this man after God's own heart, a vow that he made before the Lord, but I wanna highlight just two verses, three verses here this morning and it's verse eight through 10. It says, arise, O Lord, and go to your resting place. You in the ark of your might, let your priests be clothed with righteousness and let your saints shout for joy and for the sake of your servant, David, do not turn away the face of your anointed one. I love this idea that God arrives and he's drawn magnetically to resting places. Resting places are environments that have been prepared for the Lord, intentionally prepared in the Old Testament, those resting places were physical temples or tabernacles, but in the era that you and I are in, we actually become the resting place of God. We are his temple and his dwelling place. We have this beautiful gift of his presence where he dwells within us and we step into the fullness of what it means to be priests and kings before our God in us. The role of a priest is to minister to the Lord on behalf of the people and the role of a king or the saints is for us to rule and to reign with the authority that he's given to us. And that's what the place of prayer is for. That's what we're doing this morning as we gather is we're becoming a resting place. We're saying, Lord, here we are, taking time and prioritized your presence above all things. Here we are, we wanna be your resting place. And even though you dwell within us by your spirit and you never remove your spirit from us, we want you to come and to rest on us in a new and a fresh way today. And in response to that, we're gonna shout for joy, we're gonna worship you, we're gonna minister to your heart first and foremost because we have an opportunity this morning to give to God what he doesn't already have but what he wants more than anything, which is your willful priority to worship and to love him with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. So I wanna invite you into that invitation today to become a watchman on the wall, a priest before the Lord, a resting place for his presence and an intercessor that stands in the authority of King Jesus and exerts authority on the earth as it is in heaven. And we pray and we believe that our prayers join with his desires and seeing his will done in all the earth. And so wherever you're at this morning, let's just lift up our hands like priests before the Lord. The Lord we say, great is your faithfulness, great is your faithfulness. The Lord is good and his mercies endure forever and with shouts of praise this morning and with our vocal cords actually becoming instruments of worship and ministry to you, Father. We say, great is your faithfulness, great is your faithfulness, Lord. You are good and your mercies endure forever and it's the joy of our hearts to minister to your heart today. Lord, we're not going to minister out of the spirit of cynicism or jadedness or fear or anxiety today. Lord, the spirit that you put within us rises up and we want the exhale of our heart and our lungs to be praised to you. Praise awaits you in Zion, oh Lord. Here we are to minister to you, to sing to you, to worship you and to stand on the wall in the place of prayer and intercession, to stand in the gap as you are worthy, minister to the heart of the Father. The flesh, nation of Israel, the Jewish people in the midst of conflict in the Middle East and really under intense pressure, persecution on the global scale, the spirit of this age has reared its ugly head that the gospel of Jesus Christ is to the Jew first also to the Gentiles. So our hearts stand with Israel. Those who promises the covenants, the prophets, the patriarchs, the worship, even our Messiah Jesus comes from Isaiah 49. Verse one says, for thus says the Lord in a time of favor, I have answered you in a day of salvation, I have helped you. I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people to establish the land and to apportion desolate heritages, to say to the prisoners, come out to those who are in darkness, appear. So Lord today, we pray over Israel's nation that you have said is the apple of your eye, this people. And we're praying right now over the land that you have given as a heritage to Jacob. You said that you will not forget that you would hear in the day of salvation. Lord, we know your promises towards your people are still yes and amen, even though unfulfilled, Lord, your eye has not shifted one inch off of your people. And you are still committed to the covenants that you've made into the land that you have apportioned. We're praying today for your hand to be at work. And Lord, that you would release those prisoners. You said in verse nine, saying to the prisoners, come out and to those who are in darkness, appear, Lord, we're praying for those captives. Right now that have been taken by Hamas is 239 captives that are hidden in dark tunnels. You said that they would suddenly appear and you said that you would speak to the prisoners, come out. So Lord, right now we're praying that you would bring deliverance to those captives, praying that you would protect them, watch over them and that you would suddenly bring them out. Lord, today is the day of your salvation. And so we stand right now and we pray for the Jewish people that right now are experiencing the ancient hatred and persecution. Lord, that you would have your hand of protection, set your angelic armies around them and around the promises that you've made about them. And many would say, as the Lord forgotten Zion, as the Lord forgotten his promises, as the Lord cast off his people, you said, can a woman forget her nursing child? That she would have no compassion on the center of her womb and even these may forget, but I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palm of my hands that your walls are continually before me. God, you have not forgotten me. And Lord, in moments like this, it seems so dark and we see evil, horizons and cities and a protest and an airport. And on university campuses, but we say, arise, O Lord. Arise, O Lord, and lift up your hands because you've engraved the name of your people on your hands. Jesus, you will not forget. Yeshua, you will not forget. God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, you will not forget you've defined and even named yourself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, it's who you are. So we call you into remembrance today, Lord, towards your faithfulness and your covenant promises to your people, scattered throughout the nations as they may be, regathered in the land even in unbelief as they may be, but your promises towards them are yes and amen. So we as Gentiles right now as the church of Jesus, the Messiah, we stand and we pray for the city of Jerusalem for the nation of Israel and for the Jewish people right now that Lord, you would defend them, you would protect them and you would surround them right now, find them that you have not forgotten them, you have not cast them off, but in the day of salvation you've heard that you're moving and you're active right now. You're a wall of fire. You're a wall of fire. You will not allow the enemy to destroy your people. You will not allow the enemy to nullify your promises. You will not allow Satan and his legions to erase from the earth the people you've marked out as your own, but you are at work. And so Lord of all, we look to you and we trust you, but we joined with you in intercession for Israel and for the Jewish people right now in every city scattered throughout the earth right now that Lord, that our prayers would become an iron dome of protection over them and the Holy Spirit of the living God that you would awaken their hearts that they would look towards you, that they would not harden their hearts that their hearts would not say, why God? Have you forgotten us? But actually Lord, in this moment, in this fiery trial, they would lift up their eyes up to heaven and say, oh God of our fathers, save us, save us and that you would answer in the day of salvation, God. We pray over Israel right now. Just like you have many, many, miraculously intervened and we're asking for your intervention even in this moment. I wanna invite you, if you would, to turn in your Bibles to 1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter 13, I'm gonna start then. We're gonna be praying specifically over the next few moments for this. 1 Peter chapter one says, therefore preparing your minds for act of your mind. Be sober-minded and set your hope fully on the grace that is brought to you in the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ingest or your former ignorance. But as he who called you as holy, you also be holy in all of your conduct. Even though this isn't necessarily a prayer, it's scripture and we're gonna pray this passage and ask that the Holy Spirit would form us and shape us by his spirit, that this would be our attitude, our posture. Also this would be the conduct of our hearts. So I want you to just have that before you and we're gonna pray and sing it. And what I wanna encourage you as we always do is we're not spectators, we're all participants, right? So as we pray these things, I want you to pray them. And as we sing these prophetic verses, we're gonna hold these verses and add melody to them. I want you to sing them out because it gets into our spirit and into the fabric of our soul as we do it. Or today we set our minds. We, as the King James says, we gird up the loins of our minds for action. Lord, we want our minds to be prepared, not just on autopilot, but we want the attitude and the posture of our hearts and our minds, our will and our emotion today to be focused and prepared as people, as good soldiers of the Lord Jesus Christ that we are in a battle. And our mind is not just neutral, but Lord, it's set on action. We've got it engaged in drive today to serve the Lord, to obey you, to be as it says sober minded today. We want to be sober minded. Just as your word says be sober, be vigilant for your adversary, the devil roams around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Be steadfast in the faith. Lord, this is the attitude that we want to have today. And so today we choose and we say, my mind, my heart, my will is aligned with the heart, the mind and the will of God. Lord, today our minds, our will, our emotions are aligned with your word, oh God. And we say your leadership, we submit to your leadership today. And we're not just gonna be passive and we're not just gonna cry out to you when crisis emerges in our life where trauma or situations arise. Lord, today we choose right now to submit to your leadership, Lord Jesus. And to submit to the leadership of the Holy Spirit today and to the authority of your word. Because we want to be sober. We don't want to become intoxicated or dissipated by the spirit of this age or our own desires. We don't want to be deceived by our own deceitful lusts and our own desires and envy and selfish ambition and fears. But Lord, we want to be sober. Our minds ready with the full armor of God on today. The helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth, our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, and the sword of the spirit, praying always in the spirit today. Lord, help us to have our minds fully aligned and fully engaged with your will. God is quickly approaching. For Lord, today we choose not to set our hope on anything else than on your grace and on your kingdoms today, Lord. Some may hope in horses, some may put their trust in chariots, but we will trust in the name of the lips that dry up and expire in this temporal work set upon. You said that all flesh is grass fading. So Lord, today we don't put our hopes in vain glory and we don't put our trust in men. Today we set our hope. As it says in Isaiah, we are prisoners of hope, hope that is tied to you. Jesus, you are our hope. You've risen from the dead, you're victorious. We put our hope on your grace, God, the grace that saves us, the grace that empowers us, the grace that is actively at work in us, transforming and changing us. The arm of the flesh cannot change us. Transformation doesn't come by just self-determination. Lord, we know that change and strength and power and grace, it comes from you and it will be fully realized when you return. So Lord, we get our eyes off of ourself and we get our eyes off of the nations that rage today and we set our eyes on you, Lord Jesus. We know you're coming back and we know that we will reign and we will rule with you today. Keep that picture at the forefront of our minds today. Holy spirit, would you paint a picture for us today of what it looks like for us to put our hope fully in you today? For it's today, Lord, we want to be obedient children, not sons and daughters of disobedience. We don't want to be rebels against you that acknowledge you with our lips but our heart is far from you. We don't want to be like the mule that has to have a bit and a bridle put on its head in order. Lord, today would you remove every bitter place, every callus, every shred of distrust and independence from you today? Would you replace it with a heart of flesh, heart of obedience, from the pit who've been redeemed, wages of our sin? Lord, that we would not just be obedient in our actions but our heart would actually say, I want your will. I want to do it your way. That we would have our eyes on you, like a servant has his eyes upon his master, trying to predict not just the things that are commanded but for the eyes are locked in on your heart and on your emotions. Lord, what pleases you? What are you doing that I can come up alongside and be a part of that too, Lord? That's how we want to be today. We don't want to go back to the days of our former ignorance where we're driven by our temporary desires and the less of the flesh and the less of the eyes and the pride of the life. All these things are of the world and they're passing away but Lord, this thing, this one thing remains that our eyes fixed on you, Jesus. To walk fully obedient before you, to be delivered, it's all the things that are rooted in this world and this world's system. Lord, we want to walk as mature sons and daughters. Obedient, you called us to be holy. Set apart as you called us to be set apart. God, you are holy. Teach us to be holy. Conduct in the way that we live our lives as exiles in this broken world, God would reflect the holiness, service, religious obligation, or even legalistic standards that some man comes up with, Lord. We're not here to please, man. We're not here to somehow get man's approval, Lord, at the end of the day, what we want to bless you, God. We want to know that when you look at us with us and that we're walking in a way that reflects your nature and your desire, Lord, today we sing, we trust you. We trust that as a good father, your will is never gonna cost us, may cost us in earthly terms, but it's never gonna cost us eternal reward. Your will is always gonna lead us into life. Your will is always going to lead us into a place of peace, righteousness, joy. Our way may lead us into a trap. Your word says in Proverbs that there is a way that seems right in the man, but the end of it leads to death and destruction. But the path of the righteous winds upward. Our way will, when it's not your way, will never lead satisfaction, Lord. So we say, we choose your way. God, we want your way. Make us holy. Just ask Him that. Just say, Lord, make me holy like you are holy. Make me holy. Resting upon our lives. And I pray that for everybody who's been a part of this prayer meeting and who will be in the future. The way with the resident, the desire to serve you. Holy Spirit, we can do this in ourselves for leadership. Lead and guide us, Marcus and Phyllis. Today, afresh and new, we pray. It's in the name of Jesus. And thank you for joining us from home. Those of you who are here in the room as well, invite you to join us today at noon, tonight at 6 30 p.m. Monday through Friday, morning, noon and night from the heart of our city. And if you're here in the room, we're gonna shift into a devotional set. And so we wanna invite you to quietly leave or you can remain if you can stay and just spend some time soaking in and reading the word and listening to the Lord, listening to the voice of the Lord today. Have a great day.