 welcome this morning to our Thursday 8 a.m. prayer meeting it's so great to be with you this morning excited to connect with the Lord to worship adore praise Jesus today I'm gonna real quick read out of Psalm 113 and we'll worship together says blessed to be the name of the Lord from this time fourth and forevermore from the rising of the Sun to its setting the name of the Lord is to be praised we say on this morning on this day of the rising of the Sun we as your people collectively join together to lift high the name of Jesus our greatest honor and our privilege to worship you King Jesus you went to the lowest places and it says out of that posture in Jesus's heart in Philippians 2 that the father exalted him to the highest place God we thank you that you Jesus that you emptied yourself and you took on obedience to the father and the youth you were obedient even to death even death on a cross and because you went to the lowest places we today say you're exalted and praise to the highest place so today we say on this morning blessed to be the name of the Lord and from this time forth and forevermore from the rising of the Sun to its setting the name of the Lord shall be praised in the name of Jesus let's worship together Jesus I stand at the door knock if anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come into him and eat with him and he with me so we say today in verse 19 those whom I love I've reproved and disciplined so be zealous and repent I don't know about you but if you're getting ready and you're about to host somebody knocks on the door and you're not quite ready you can feel caught but we want to be prepared in our hearts in our zeal for the Lord that even before he knocks our hearts and our minds are prepared and repentant soft humble and contrite before the Lord so even in this moment before we move into some intercession I want to give us an opportunity just as the children of God they come before the Lord we hear the knock on the door of our hearts and we choose voluntarily to go to low places and to repent before you Jesus for any idols that we have carved in our own image anything that we hold above or before you anything that's exalted above you God would you crush the idols in our life we have a repentant heart before you today we want to hear that knock and respond just like the five virgins that are prepared with oil God let our hearts be prepared in this hour and in this time let our hearts be soft humble contrite lowly you desire more than sacrifice a surrendered heart God help us help us give us grace give us mercy God we cry out for mercy in this hour help us as your children mercy Lord that we would have a surrendered heart able to respond to the knock at the door preparing oil God we ask Lord for humble contrite lowly hearts in this hour I just give you an opportunity just between you and the Lord just anything that the Lord's highlighting just to repent and say God extract this out of me pull this out of me not just the weed above the surface but the root system God pull those things out of my heart and let the soil of my heart be soft before you that you can seed and plant and water all that is in your heart let my heart be fertile and ready to receive all that you have in the desert a highway for our God every valley shall be lifted up and every mountain and hill be made low the uneven ground shall become a level and the rough place is a plane and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the Lord has spoken God we today partner with you and the proclamation that's in your heart God prepare the way that there would be a preparedness in our churches to be a John the Baptist in this hour of the great return of King Jesus that we say that we're the voice crying out in the wilderness that you are making the path straight that you are uncovering the highways and we say that every valley shall be lifted up every mountain made low and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed Jesus we pray reveal yourself make yourself manifest in dreams and envisions we intercede over our city that the loss are coming home because of the revelation of Jesus and the church in this hour rising up in boldness and in strength to proclaim the goodness of God the glory of Jesus being revealed in darkness they're shown a great light we pray God that you would help the church in this hour to be the John the Baptist behold the Lamb of God that there would be a knowing and a preparedness in our heart to call forth the revelation of Jesus in this day and in this hour we let the glory of Jesus be revealed that's our prayer and that's our cry the voice of the church the glory of Jesus to be revealed now we pray it together and properly reveal yourself Jesus we intercede for our cities wherever you're at we pray the glory of Jesus to be revealed in great setup in darkness light we thank you that Christ you came to shine brightly to bring visibility wherever light shines it brings light to everything else and so we say let your light shine a city on a hill cannot be hitting God we pray over Kalamazoo that it would shine brightly because of the saints filled with the light of Jesus God bringing and proclaiming the good news of Jesus that many would come and respond to the gospel repent from their ways and return as prodigals into the family of God and into light becoming children of life God we ask Lord that your light would shine forth in power in truth God that nothing can stop light breaking forth in darkness so we got we say God move in strength move in power we ask for light to come forth a city Kalamazoo set on a hill cannot be hidden we proclaim we prophesied let the light of Jesus shine brightly in our city and in Kalamazoo and the name of light we're gonna take some time in some rapid fire prayer to pray for our homes we know what when the family and the life is full of light which is the word of God being parents training our kids training them in the word of God training them in all power and in all might and through the word of God in Isaiah 40 it says that the grass withers the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it surely the people are grass the grass withers the flower fades but the word of our God will stand forever I'm gonna invite you if you're watching but us in the room that I want to invite you up we're gonna pray 10 15 20 second prayers praying for the homes in our city to be filled with light filled with the word of God training our kids in the sword of the spirit that this is their weapon in this age and in this day their weapon of warfare is the word of God I'm gonna invite miss Tami and we're gonna begin yeah father we thank you for every home represented in this city God and those on the live stream and we thank you for your zeal for homes to be vibrant in the spirit of God so we're asking Holy Spirit would you break in with grace upon moms and dads and grandmas and grandpas Lord the gatekeepers of every home would you empower them with might Lord to raise up the little ones God in a spirit of worship and in a spirit of prayer and in the strength and the truth of your word pour out your spirit upon our homes God and raise up the family alters in Jesus name as mothers the spiritual fathers spiritual mothers we celebrate the life and the resurrection that you demonstrate and that you extend to us as your believers the father that we first must die not that you've compelled us to it but that you invited us into death so father we celebrate that we and we're so thankful for the opportunity to crawl up on the cross with you and lay our lives down it's so sweet to die with you and may we be examples as fathers mothers spiritual leaders spiritual parents to people of what it looks like to die to ourselves show the world with resurrection looks like we love you Jesus God I ask that you would restore marriages in homes God I ask for the broken hearts that are living in this city would you bring unity into the marriages father I pray that your love would shine as husbands love their wives and as wives love their husbands God I ask that the hearts of the fathers would turn to their sons and the daughters to their mothers God would you restore your ideal creation the family unit God would you restore the way that we see the family God would it be an image with the family unit be an image bearer of Christ in this city God would you restore the family unit in Jesus name Jesus I just pray that you would bring joy and life back into the homes of Kalamazoo God that in the families that have felt broken and disunified for so long God I just pray for joy deep supernatural joy that would break through in homes God starting from the smallest of children God I pray that there would just be little kids who would just be filled with your joy and with your peace that would bring that peace to their parents God and I pray for moms who have been tired and weary God I pray that you would fill them up with your joy and that your joy would be their strength God I pray for the fathers who are struggling with the weight of caring it all God that you would just give them your joy as their strength God I pray that the families of Kalamazoo that the joy of the Lord would be their strength but I pray that you would create a dynamic shift in families that where there's harshness and negativity that you would bring peace and joy and life that there would be positivity in the home the attitudes would change the outlooks on life would change because your presence and your love would be so involved in their lives that Lord you would just bring compassion in their homes love in their homes and joy and laughter and positivity between siblings and harmony between parents and from parents to children and the other way God I just ask for a dynamic shift where when things are negative that you would bring in your presence and flip it around to be the opposite Lord Lord your word promises in John 8 Lord that if your disciples will abide in your word Lord Jesus that you that they will know the truth and that the truth will set them free and so Jesus we just ask as families as fathers lead by abiding in your word and becoming true disciples God as mothers take the children through the scriptures Lord and teach them who you are Lord as the family abides in your word Lord that they would know the truth God that they would know you Lord and that would be the thing that would set people free to Lord we want to lift up the protocols Lord you said in your word you train up a child in a way that they should go and when they get old they won't depart from it and we know that your word is true you said it won't return boy they will accomplish what you send it to accomplish and prosper and the things you send it to prosper and you said in your word Father God in Ezekiel that you would cause your men and women to walk in your word and you would install a new heart give them a new heart so we just change those stony hearts and turn them into a heart of flesh by them it caused them to walk in your ways in Jesus name Psalm 127 unless the Lord builds the house in labor in vain who build it and for he gives blessing to his beloved excuse me behold the children are the heritage and a gift in the Lord the fruit of the womb are a reward like arrows in the hand of the warrior so the children as of ones you and so Lord we just thank you we bless these houses that they would recognize that you are Lord of their homes and that their children are their blessing and their quivers that they're not a burden that you will bless their families you will strengthen them and guide them and direct them and help them raise these children we bless them in the name of Jesus Tina says let the word of Christ dwell in you richly teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom singing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God we pray right now as we close for our homes God we ask Lord that fathers and mothers would choose would choose the word of God would choose joy in their homes God that they would not be in shame but God you would deliver them and that the light of Jesus would dwell richly in their hearts and in their minds and in their relationships God we pray that the home will be a place of preparedness and of joy and of strength in the name of Jesus God we thank you for this time God we thank you for your kindness and your tender heart towards each one of us and we bless you we bless you King Jesus and everyone said amen amen great to pray and to be with you we continue praying here at the radiant city center every noon at 6 30 and obviously here at 8 a.m. bless you