 Good morning everyone and welcome to our Monday morning prayer meeting this week here in the Radiant City Center in the heart of downtown Kalamazoo. Thank you for those who are here this morning joining us. For those who are online joining us as well, we welcome you as we come together as one church, one heart to worship and to pray to the Lord in this hour. The first thing we do this morning, we might have read the Bible, prayed, we might be sending our kids to school during this time as many are starting school this week or in the coming days or previous days. But this hour is special that we can come together as a body, as the children of God, as the church of God with Christ as our head to worship, to declare the worthiness of Jesus, who He is. That in the midst of our circumstance, we can look at the face of fear, the face of condemnation, the face of stressors or accusation in our life. And we can say, Jesus, you alone are worthy, you alone are the answer. We thank you for who you are. And that's going to stir our faith to be able to remember who He was in those circumstances, knowing that it's who He will be again and again and again. So I want to just open up with the first few verses of Psalm 63 and encourage you just as I'm reading this to read along with me or to listen, to repeat these phrases and let this set the heart posture of this hour of prayer and worship together. This is not just a box to check, but this is a moment that the Lord has been looking forward to. All weekend He's been excited, just as your child is excited to go to school. And there's been an intensity and excitement and thinking about all the new things and the new friends, the new conversations. The Lord is just as excited. He's excited for this hour where He gets to have some new conversations with you, some new memories with you, some new phrases, some new encounters. And He's been looking forward to this time with you. Psalm 63 says, Oh God, you are my God. Earnestly, early in the morning, I will seek you. My soul, it thirsts for you. My flesh, it faints for you as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Verse 2 says, So I've looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and your glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live in your name, I will lift up my hands. So Father, we thank you for this house. We thank you that you dwell in the midst of your people. You are enthroned on the praises of your people. You are not far off, you are not remote, but you are close to us. So we enter into this house of prayer, this temple for the Lord, and we seek you. The first thing we do before we go into work, before we go into school, before we start our chores or our life, we seek you, declare our need for you, that just as we need water every day, we need you every day. That we never want to grow comfortable in our own strength, comfortable in our own desires and will. But we want to lean on you, we want to thirst and hunger and grow faint for you, so that we every morning return to the place of your presence to be filled and to be refreshed. So we come into the sanctuary and we look at your power and your glory. We look at your worthiness, your holiness and your faithfulness. And we declare in the midst of our circumstance, this is who you are. Your love is better than anything in my life, anything that I have searched after. Pleasures, crutches, vices, things that I have searched after to satisfy, to strengthen, to try to fill me up. Your love is better. Your love is better. So our response to this need and this declaration is that our lips will praise you. So even right now, before we start to sing our worship song together as a corporate body, begin to sing your own song. Begin just to let the words, I love you, thank you. You are worthy. Let it come out of your lips right now. Let us sing our own song as we, maybe you're going to lift your hands, maybe you're going to bless him, maybe you're going to speak his name, but right now just begin to sing phrases to the Lord. Sing a song of thanksgiving, a song of praise, of adoration. The simple songs you are worthy. I love you. You're beautiful. You're faithful. I thank you. Let those songs flow out right now. Yes, your love is better. We declare in our circumstance more than any other love, more than security, more than money. All other wells will run dry. Their loves will betray, but there's no selfishness in your love. We'll never thirst again from your well. This hour to you, trust in your leader. The pressures were here. Face of fear, face of pain stronger. The song of heaven right now. What the angels sing. In the song of heaven, we step into your presence, into your throne room. The song of heaven, phrases of heaven, of the worthiness and the holiness. Who are slain, the saints join in with the angels and the elders and the foes of the creatures. As we step into the throne room. The place where our Lord dwells, as we join with the song of heaven. Saying, Holy are you Lord, worthy is your name. We are stepping into the place where he rules, where he governs, where his authority is centered. And we come with our song and we come with our prayers. And we step into his throne room and we say, Lord, we need you. We want what's in heaven on earth. We want how your name is glorified in heaven. We want it on earth. We need you to move. We partner with you on what you said you wanted to do. We're not trying to stir you up and to try to convince you, but we are saying we agree with your heart. And we want to be vessels, hands and feet, a mouthpiece to declare what is on the Lord's heart. So right now we pray from your word, 2 Thessalonians 3. And as we pray for this, we are praying for the students all the way from kindergarten to college, senior in college. We pray for this range of people who are being targeted right now by the enemy. To try to tear down this range of generations. To forget about their Lord and Savior. To be distracted by other things. And to be convinced that only medication, only fame, only media, only money can solve their problems. And we come and we stand in the gap. We stand in that throne room. And we pray that as these students walk into their schools this morning, as it says in 2 Thessalonians 3, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored. That as they walk into their doors, as they open lockers, as they walk into classrooms, that the word of the Lord would run swiftly, would run ahead of them, speed ahead of them and be honored. That the name of Jesus would come out of those who are bold witnesses of the gospel. And just as it happened to them and among them they would speak the name of Jesus. We ask for boldness, we ask for a witness, we ask for the word of God to run swiftly. So God, right now we ask in the name of Jesus that you would speak through students as a bold witness and that the word of the Lord would be honored in these schools in Jesus' name. Let it run swiftly. Move ahead of them, just as you did in Exodus. Be a pillar of light and a fire moving ahead of them. Guide them. We ask that as your word moves swiftly, that it would be spoken with boldness, spoken with authority, that it would be partnered with signs and wonders, that it would be partnered with healings, that it would be partnered with prophetic words, insights, that as they speak the name of Jesus and as you come with your hand over them with boldness and authority, signs, wonders, prophecies and miracles that it would catch like wildfire, that people would see and hear the power and the worthiness and the authority of the man Christ Jesus, Lord and Savior, seated at the right hand of the Father, that it would run swiftly through the schools through the partnership of signs, wonders and miracles in the name of Jesus. Fire shut up in their bones. Signs and wonders would take place. Stretch out your hand through and deliverance would happen. That depression would be broken, addictions be broken, healings, addictions shattered right now. Trauma healed. Prophetic utterance, insight, identity would be declared and spoken over them. Fill their mouths as they open it. Scripture continues it says for not all have faith, but the Lord is faithful. He will establish you. He will guard you against the evil one and we have confidence in the Lord about you that you are doing and will do the things we command and may the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and the steadfastness of Christ. So God, I ask for those witnesses, those who are stepping into their school who have been praying this whole last week, praying for this return into school to be sent ones, to be ones who would declare the name of Jesus that as the enemy tries to target them, to try to silence them, to try to shame them, to try to take their knees out in fear we ask that the Lord would guard them against the evil one that there would be confidence that they are doing what God has commanded and sent them to do and if God has commanded it and if God has sent it that he will follow and he will lead and he will strengthen and he will provide and he will direct their hearts to love and patience and steadfastness as they come and as these witnesses they speak and it feels like it's falling against deaf ears or hitting up against a wall or constant persecution or tension that they would be directed to the love of God that knows no end that laid its life down even though others reviled and that there would be a steadfastness and a patience in the love of Christ we pray that as they open their mouths you would fill it as you tell them to go that you would lead them and as that they pray and glorify your name you would stretch out your hand but we know that this comes with tension and that you know that this comes with tribulation so God we ask right now in the name of Jesus guard them, strengthen them and give them confidence Defender, surround them, rest under the shadow of your wing Name is greater, active, sits above the circles of the earth Most high, there's a veil of light Open up the earth, who sustains life I just send back into worship We continue this posture of the worthiness of Jesus We continue to place ourselves in the presence of God to draw close to Him in this hour He is worthy, He is the answer He is the solution In Jesus' name we pray Sing this love song to you Jesus, the holy one, the anointed one Let our hearts burn As we sing the song of our relationship, our love, our salvation with you and as we move from this time of worship into a time of prayer we remember those that are close to us that do not have that relationship We remember those who might have once known you and maybe in an earlier time in their life they had a relationship where they've heard the name of Jesus but because of circumstances or pain or trauma that they have walked away from it or they felt like their plan, their idea is better just as the story of the prodigal son, the one who decided I am better off if I make my own decisions than walking away from the Lord in heaven So we pray for those prodigals right now and I encourage you as we pray whether it be fathers, mothers, brothers or sisters or close friends As we pray together I encourage you to insert their name into the phrases that are being prayed the scripture that's being read and the songs that are being sung Speak their name aloud because Jesus is speaking their name He is making intercession night and day for them, before the Father He is praying for that brother praying for that sister, for that mother, for that father saying, Father, I want them to experience the love that we have I want them to know the hope of their calling I want them to experience the name above all names the power, the breakthrough of heaven heaven and earth meeting I want them to experience that So He's saying their name so I encourage you in this time these last few moments to stand in the gap before that person before the Father and pray for them to be praying out of Ephesians 1 17 through 19 says that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of glory may give them the spirit of wisdom and of revelation and the knowledge of God that the eyes of their hearts would be enlightened that they would know what is the hope to which He has called them what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power towards them who believe according to the working of His great might So Father, we stand in the gap of those right now those brothers and sisters the fathers and mothers, the prodigals the ones who do not know You the ones who may have known You to some capacity but have walked away from You We speak their name right now we speak their name in this prayer room wherever we are at and we say Father of glory we ask for a spirit of wisdom and revelation we ask for the eyes of their hearts to be open we ask for scales to be broken off we ask for the thorns that have grown around their heart to be broken we ask for their hearts to be softened we ask for their ears to be opened that when the enemy tries to come in and confuse and distract and to harden and to bring in a haze around them of pain, a haze of deception we ask that the light of Christ would come and shine like an arrow that would pierce their hearts right now we ask for the layers in the walls that are standing in fins that they are not forgotten that they have a hope they have a purpose they have a destiny if they step into the calling as a child of God as if they break and lay down the chains of sin and death at the feet of Jesus and they become slaves and children of righteousness that there is everlasting life that the things that they do now that have left them with nothing the things that bear fruit that lead only to death that they would lay them down and walk in a manner worthy of God that they would walk in a manner of light and righteousness knowing that with that becomes everlasting life and in your presence they would have fullness of joy so right now we ask in the name of Jesus wisdom and revelation in their hearts they know your name they would know your name being in that mud pit sitting in their myery pit sitting in darkness hopeless confused call them home show them of their calling the inheritance of your power revelation of a purpose sons and daughters fathers mothers brothers sisters come home you know and your heart is for these lost ones we partner with you knowing that it is not too far gone their hearts are not too hard their hearts are not too lost that you are drawing them and leading them so we continue even through this week every day we offer up these small moments of prayer knowing that these small seeds will begin to take root and to blossom and to begin to uproot the weeds and the thorns taking residents inside of them in Jesus name we pray amen and amen we thank you for this hour that you've come and joined together in the heart of the city it's one church offering worship and prayer declaring the holiness of Jesus we're gonna be here Monday through Friday 8 a.m. again on the broadcast you can join us also in person at noon and 6 30 in downtown Kalamazoo thank you for joining us we'll see you again today and tomorrow God bless