 Hey, good morning. Welcome to 8 a.m. Prayer. We're in the Radiant City Center in downtown Kalamazoo. Those of us joining, those of you joining us online, we just want to say thank you for consecrating an hour to worship and pray and intercede behalf of our city and behalf of the church. You know, every single move of God has started in the place of prayer, and so there's no more significant way to invest your time to create a rhythm in your life than to know God through and in the place of prayer. And so we're going to do that. We're going to pray. We're going to let the Holy Spirit lead us, guide us, and direct us in this time, and we're going to intercede for our city, for the lost, for the nations, and I just want to encourage you to engage however that looks for you. Maybe that's pacing. Maybe that's re-saying some of the phrases that we're saying. Obviously, that means singing and worshiping along with us, but I want to just encourage you to step out and not just kind of only soak. I know there's moments for that, but also to really put your emphasis and your voice into what we're doing, what we're saying, what we're praying. And so I'm going to begin in just reading out of Isaiah chapter 40. It's really a exaltation of who God is. It's a reminder of His greatness and His grandeur. It says this in verse 25, To whom then will you compare me, the Lord, that I should be like Him, says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see who created these, who brings out their hosts by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of His might. And because He is strong in power, not one is missing. Why do you say, oh Jacob and speak, oh Israel, my way is hidden from the Lord, or I've been disregarded by God? Have you not known? Have you not heard that the Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth? He does not faint or grow weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint and to Him who has no might, He increases strength. Even you should confaint and be weary and young men will fall exhausted, but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles, run and not be weary, walk, not be faint. So this morning, Holy Spirit, we wait on you. We wait on your presence and we invite you into this hour, into this consecrated time of prayer, into this focused on you moment in our morning God. We just say, Holy Spirit, you come where you're welcome. You come where you're invited and we say, meet us in this place. Wherever we are, we say, let your spirit come. As we minister to you, as we worship you, as we pray and intercede, we just say, lead us this morning. Holy Spirit, fill us this morning. Holy Spirit, make us even more aware of your presence, your goodness, your grace in our lives, your understanding, your wisdom, and your love is unsearchable. It stands alone. It's matchless. We submit and surrender to you this morning as we pray in Jesus' name. Seated and steadfast and faithful, matchless and be perfect and tall in your temple crack. Holy, holy silence, as we stay fixed on you, ascribing the glory. As we're singing, as we're echoing, we're joining in really eternal song of the angels and the elders and the saints around the throne, the living creatures. Revelation tells us that forever they have been singing of God's holiness and worthiness and they never get bored, they never get tired, they never even change songs. They just sing of what they see, of what they're experiencing, which is the goodness and holiness, worthiness of Him who sits on the throne, who's trained, who's robes fill the temple. And even as we're just singing and repeating that, I want us to just imagine all of heaven is joining with us, all of creation is singing the praises of God and that is the cry of every living thing is, you are worthy Jesus, you are worthy God. You stand alone. Who is like the Lord, our God? There is no one. All of the temple, all of creation, all of your children are singing, holy, holy, holy and worthy, worthy, and we join with that. We join our voice with them this morning. Your heart is tender toward us. You care for us. Cast our cares upon you, the holy one. You care for us. Satisfy the desire in the eyes of all of you. Satisfy the only source that satisfies you are the only well that doesn't run dry. You are the river of life. And so we sing of who you are. We sing of your faithfulness. We say, God, there is no one who loves like you love. No one who cares for us like you do. And we just declare that God, that you are enough, that you're still the one we love. You're still the one who fulfills our desires. You're still the one God who is worthy of our praise and even as so many things vie for our attention or want to divide our heart or want to take us to a place that's outside maybe of you being our source, we recenter and refocus this morning. And we say, God, in your presence is a fullness of joy. And at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. God, greatest your faithfulness. Every day, God, you remain constant. Every day, God, you remain the same. Every day, God, your mercies meet us, new mercies. This we recall to mind so that we do not lose hope through the Lord's mercies. We are not consumed because they're new every morning. Great is the faithfulness of our God. Presence, God, your presence in our midst is fullness of joy. So, God, we just drink. We drink from your presence this morning. We drink from the fountain of life. We drink from the river of delight and we say, God, let the satisfying streams of your presence fill us this morning. God, let it push out the other things, the worries, the fears, the anxieties we came in with. God, the other things that maybe have taken real estate in our heart. We realign this morning and say, God, you are the center. You are the source. You are the only one who's worth. You are still the one we love. You are still the one, God, who opens your hand and satisfies our desires, who gives us what we need, who fills us with hope and truth and life. God, Zoë life is from you, God. It is not something that we manufacture. It is not something that is a byproduct of our effort, God. It is a gift from you. And so, we receive it this morning. We thank you for it. We praise you for it. And we just declare. We prophesy. We pray with our voice. Even if there's part of us is like, is that really all I need? Oh, is he really enough? We just say it. You are enough. You're all that we need. You're the source of our strength. You're the one that we love. We prophesy and declare it, God, the reality that you are a faithful God. But you hold us in your hand, God, that the mountains may quake, God, and the seas may rage, Father, but there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, and we find our joy in you. We find our strength in you. We find our hope in you, God. We are still. We still our hearts, and we know that you are God. We sing that. We sing that again, just of your faithfulness, of the one that we love. You're the one that we still adore. You're the one who is still the source of our joy. And we're going to declare that as a truth beyond our feelings, beyond our circumstances, beyond even what you may have came into this prayer meeting with. I want us to just declare that this is true, that this is what is the constant in my life, the love of God, the joy of God, the source of our strength is found in Jesus alone. I just, I wasn't planning on maybe going this direction, but we're singing about the generational blessing of the Lord and the generational impact of God and His love on children in particular. And so I just want to take some time. I just want to pray for the next generation. I want to lift up this idea with so many being inundated with so many things that just God revealing His heart and His love to children, to the next generation as a father. So God, we just, even as we sing over ourselves that you would be our source, that you would be our joy, that you would be the one thing we look to for our identity. God, we pray that over this next generation. We pray that over the children, God, in our church, the children in our city, the children, God, who are in situations that are, are not ideal in the natural that God, you would reveal your heart and your love. You're a generational God. You said I'm the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and God, you, you beckoned little children to come to you, God. You valued children. You laid your hands on them and blessed them, God. And we just declare there is no junior holy spirit. There is no waiting a period for young people to experience the love of God to be marked by the love of God. And we just pray that God for the children in our church, the children in our city, God, this generation that's growing up and being so influenced and inundated by other things, by things of the world that God, the greater one, the, the, the immeasurable love of God would meet them, encounter them, change them, transform them. God, I pray right now in a few weeks as we have kids camp, got hundreds of young people, children, teens, preteens that are going to be in an environment where God, you can come and Lord, many of us as adults can think back to camps to experience a time as a young person where we encountered God in a unique way. And we pray right now, God, right now that your presence would be so strong in that camp, God, that young people would, would identify as children of God, that Father, the, the words that maybe been spoken over them, the things they believed about themselves, the lies of the enemy would be broken. And the truth of a Father who loves them and made them and created them and has planned the purposes for them would come to fruition in their lives. God would be a reality in their hearts. God, that you would mark and touch them with your love. God, we pray for every counselor. We pray for every pastor. We pray for each volunteer that God, there would just be a unique depth and, and length and height of the love of God that's revealed to these young people, to these children, God. And we believe that there is generational blessing in place. And even those who've not yet been born, God, you have marked and called. And so we pray into this generation. We pray into the hearts and lives of young people that Father, you would reveal who you are, reveal the truth that's in Jesus, reveal and expose the lies of the enemy and culture and things around us and let the source of our joy and strength and identity be in Jesus' alone regret. Oh Jesus loves the little children of, oh Jesus loves the little children of the world. Oh Jesus loves the little children of this generation of children. Oh Jesus loves us. For all your children, my God, there is a emphasis you put on children to have faith, like a child. Unless you become like this child, you can't enter the kingdom. And so God, we just, we pray that we pray beyond what we read, God, beyond statistics, beyond what says, you know, this percentage is only going to follow Jesus, or this percentage of divorce, or this many broken homes. And we just declare the greater one is working in this generation. My God, you are moving. And my God, you will have the final word. The cross will have the final word, God, that you are raising up sons and daughters, God, little ones, God, who will know you and be marked by you and pray in strength and prophesy to their generation. So God, we are not moved by what we read around us. What statistics say, what polls show, God, we declare that your word says that you are God, and that you know the end from the beginning, and you are the Alpha and the Omega, and you have given your spirit to children. You have given, God, the Holy Spirit of God to dwell in children. So we just declare, God, you're doing a work in children. You're doing a work in young people, God. And right now in homes, Father, families are praying together, God. Families are passing on faith, God, that there is, it's becoming normal to pray and prophesy and see healings and breakthroughs in homes, God. And we just ask you, light a fire on what's happening, God. We pray it, you do it, God. By the Holy Spirit, we pray. Parents right now, God, those who are wanting and desiring to raise their children to know you and love you, that God, you would give wisdom, direction, grace, and strength to them, God. I silence the lies of the enemy that say, you failed, you've not done enough, you're the reason this is happening, God. And let there be the truth, the truth that's in Jesus that says you are a faithful God. You're moving when we don't see it. Productors are coming home, God. Young people are discovering purpose, God, beyond what the world says and in their identity in Christ. And I pray for strength for parents, grace for parents. I also pray that there would be a revelation in us as parents of the mantle we have and the responsibility we have, but God, ultimately, it is your strength, God, that we lean into. It is your grace that is sufficient. And we pray, God, do the work in our city and in our churches, in families, growing in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ for your glory. In Jesus' name. Amen. Hey, thanks so much for being here downtown, joining us online. As always, we're here at noon in 6.30, Monday through Friday. God bless you. Have a great day.