 Well, hello. Good morning. Welcome to 8 a.m. Prayer. I just want to say welcome to those joining online. It's good to be with you if you're in the room. I invite you to stand and if you're able to at home, I just invite you to stand as well. We're going to be in Revelation chapter 1 this morning and then we're going to be interceding out of Psalm chapter 2. But I want to read specifically verse 12 through 20 this morning. This is the Apostle John on Island of Patmos seeing an open vision of the Lord highly and exalted. You look at the Apostle John, he saw Jesus in his human form. He saw the transfigured Jesus. He saw the crucified Jesus, the resurrected Jesus. And now he's seeing the glorified Jesus. I want to just focus in and minister to the Lord this morning. Verse 12 says, then I turn to see the voice that was speaking with me and having turned I saw seven golden lampstands and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like the Son of Man clothed in a row reaching to the feet and girded across his chest with a golden sash. His head and his hair were white like wool like snow and his eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnish bronze when it has been made to glow in the furnace and his voice was like the sound of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars and out of his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword and his face was like the sun shining in its strength. When I saw him I fell at his feet like a dead man and he placed his right hand on me saying, do not be afraid. I am the first and the last in the living one and I was dead and behold I am alive forevermore and I have the keys of death and the Hades therefore write the things which you have seen and all the things which are and all the things which will take place after these. As before the mystery of the seven stars which you saw my right hand the seven golden lampstands seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven lampstands and seven churches. Well this morning Lord we come to you and we just say you are glorified. You are the one who walks among the lampstands. You are glorified in all your glory King Jesus. You are the only one found worthy. I'm just going to invite you to start ministering to the Lord. Just begin to lift your hands. Just begin to open your mouth. Just begin to declare who the Lord is. You are Alpha. You are Omega. You are the wonderful counselor. You are the mighty God. You are the Prince of Peace. You are the everlasting Father. Yes Lord we just exalt your holy name. We just exalt your holy name. Yeah come on let's just begin to press in. We've come to his house of prayer to minister to the Lord to put on our levitical garments and begin to minister to him because he is worthy because he is holy because he stands alone because he's the only one worthy to open the scroll. Worthy is the Lamb. Worthy is the Lamb. Worthy is the Lord God Almighty. You will be praised in your house. So we just say being thrown upon the praises of your people. Come on let's just begin to stir our soul to bless the Lord. We lift you high King Jesus. We lift you high. We cry out. We say we want to draw near to you. This morning we want to exalt your holy name. The goodness of God. We have 53 verse 3. It says he was despised and forsaken of men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and hid their face. He was despised and we did not esteem him. Surely our griefs he himself bore and our sorrows he carried. Yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well-being fell upon him and by his scorching. All of us like sheep have gone astray. Each one of us has turned to his own way. But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all. But we just take a moment to remember, remind ourselves of the sin that was put upon your very body. We remember the first time you spoke to us, the moment you revealed yourself to us. We just ask that you would return the joy of our salvation back to us, God. Lord, would you remind us of the early moments and the early days when we were fascinated, when we were captivated, when we were blown away, when it was too good to be true. God, I pray that you would just shake up our familiarity with who you are. Would you shake up our preconceived notions, our God, that we've learned enough about you to be comfortable. God, I pray that you would even create a heart that would begin to long and to hunger after you, God. Lord, I just pray for a lovesick bride. Even in this room, just begin to put your hand on your heart and just begin to ask the Lord for the gift of hunger. Proverbs, it says, it's the glory of God to conceal a matter and it's the glory of kings to search out a matter. And so Lord, we just say we're searching you out. We're not content with what we've seen. Lord, when we remember, it's just scratching of the surface of what more you're longing to do. Behold, the door is open and you're inviting us in. So Lord, we just enter in. Lord, we pray for greater revelation of the crucifixion, of that moment, of what you purchase, God. Would you begin to open our eyes? Would you begin to drop a spirit of wisdom and revelation? What are remembering, propellous forward into future obedience and future longing and future hunger? Jesus, you said, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. And Lord, we just say we're coming after you this morning. We're searching you out. Lord, we ask for a gift of hunger. We just begin to cry out. If you have your prayer language, just begin to, just begin to pray and sing in the spirit. But just begin to stir your heart up. Begin to stir yourself up by the spirit. Allow those rivers of living water to flow out of you. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. All our iniquity was put on you. You brought us near. You brought us near. We're drawing near to you this morning, Lord. Your promise is that if we draw near to you, you will draw near to us. So, Lord, we just say we're taking a step forward this morning. We're leaning in. We're leaning in. Like Mary at Bethany, we begin to just break open and lean in. We just say we're pouring our affection. We're pouring our devotion. We're re-upping. Lord, regardless of whether we feel it or not, we move past that. We choose love. We choose to lavish our love on you because you first loved us. Come on. I just even sense a wall right now. I don't know why I'm reserved or why I'm holding back, but just begin to push through. Just begin to command your soul by the Spirit of God to release a fragrance of worship. Come on. Return to your first love like the Lord told the Church of Ephesus. Restore the first love flame in us, Lord, to hunger and thirst for you. Just begin to sing in the Spirit. Begin to lift your voice. Lord, I just ask for holy desperation to fall on your church again. You're the one solution. You're the only way. You're the narrow way. We just say we don't want to miss a meal. We don't want to miss a moment. Fearing the table. Take our seat. Fill us, Lord. Fill us with your Holy Spirit. Just begin to just begin to extend your hands. Just begin to ask the Lord. We need a daily filling. You just say, Lord, fill us with your Holy Spirit. Anoint us to be witnesses. God, we just need you. We need you, but we need you to stir up the hunger, but we need you to expand the vessel in our hearts that we would receive more of you. And God, I'm asking just like the upper room when people gathered in one mind in prayer, Lord, I ask that you would fill this room. You would fill those watching online, like you filled the upper room with your Spirit. We just say we're hungry. We're desperate. We just say we lift up our Holy hands and we want to touch you. We just ask God, fill us with your power. Fill us with your presence because you paid for it. Not because we earned it. Not because we deserve it, but you paid for it. You purchased it and you went to the Father and you released the promise of the Father. Yes, Lord, fill us. Don't fill us to the brim. Fill us to overflowing. Just come against the spirit of distraction and fatigue, specifically fatigue. I just, I just pray in Jesus' name that a spirit of fatigue would be binded in Jesus' name. I just even said, if you've been dealing with heavy fatigue, like you just cannot shake a weariness or a tiredness. I just want to pray over that this morning. If that's you, whether it's online, if you're in the room, if you just raise your hand. Okay. If you just want to come around these people and just lay hands on them, we're just going to, we're just going to pray, Lord, fill them with your Holy Spirit. Fill them with your Holy Spirit right now. Fill them to overflowing. Fill them with strength. Fill them with might. Fill them with your power, God. Just break a spirit of fatigue, that weariness. We just are reminded of Jesus' promise. Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest. Yes, Lord, fill them. Fill them in Jesus' name. Worry has caused fatigue and weariness. Lord, I just pray that you would break a spirit of worry right now. You would impart a gift of faith in Jesus' name. I just want to leave space just for really just a prophetic utterance and just a word that we feel like is being shared. So the Lord has been working in my life this past week. It's been an interesting time. The verse that's really been prevalent in the past few days comes from Isaiah 26 verse 3. Isaiah 26 verse 3 says, The steadfast of mind you will keep in perfect peace because he trusts in you. Now here's the thing about that is like, so I've been going through this challenge. You don't need to know about all the challenge. There's individuals that are sacrificing to try to protect me. They are going through just horrible things. Pray for them in order to do that. There's an unrighteous thing that we are fighting and all of this. What I'm going through, I was supposed to be possibly getting out of it yesterday and I was going to be everything put back to right. I was praying this verse and I was thinking about the peace of God and I was claiming the peace of God. I was like, yes, the peace of God is over my life. Thank you, oh Lord. And that's true. But the way I was saying it was not true. You see, I was so excited because it was all going to come together and I was like, oh, it was supposed to be maybe by three o'clock yesterday and three o'clock came and it went and then things came up and these six individuals reached out to me and they said, we're so sorry, but we're not able to do it yet. And I thought, yet, I was like, what is that? I thought we were here. I thought we were done. And it was at that moment that what the steadfastness is and what peace truly is. And this is the word that I want you all to know about God's peace is God's peace has no conditions. If you believe that you have God's peace, then what you say is all as well, all as well. If this happens, if this happens, if this happens, that's not what matters. What matters is that God's peace remains. And that's that common thing that we say so often that it surpasses all understanding. It does. It really does. And so my wife and I, as we sat on these things and looked at these things and we have children and we're looking at the struggles that all of this has brought to them and could bring more for them. And we said, that's okay. And suddenly this verse like actually made sense that the steadfastness of mind you will keep in perfect peace because he trusts in you. And so I woke up this morning. I didn't have a job to go to. I didn't have anything to do. I've been here a lot this week because I haven't had a job. And I was just like, it's a good day. It's a good day. I pray the peace of God upon you all and that any conditions that you are holding to that peace that you would let go and just recognize that God, he really is in control. And you don't have to do anything. There's this thing that happened. I want to give you this one image. This one image is that this summer I was working through a lot of things and I'm a control freak. I was trying to control everything. And I was over at a person's house that was teaching my kids how to shoot a long bow. And he asked me if I wanted to shoot this long bow. And he hands it to me and I put it in and I take the shots and I did like three shots and then my shot started to go off. And he said, you know what's happening is you're gripping that bow and you don't need to grip the bow. You just lay your hand on it and everything's okay. You don't need to grip it. May God's peace be with you all. Yeah, let's just begin to stand and we're just going to respond. We're going to grab ahold of this chorus and we're just going to declare that the Lord's pouring an outpouring of Jesus and grace and Jesus name. We just submit our obedience to you. All right, if you have your bibles you can turn to Psalm chapter two. We're going to go into the time of intercession and intercession. It doesn't have to be heavy. It doesn't have to be this working up, but actually from a place of peace we can begin to intercede and know that we have the comfort and the strength of the Lord. So out of Psalm chapter two verse one it says, why are the nations in an uproar and the people's devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed saying, let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us. Verse four, he who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them, then he will speak to them in his anger and terrify them in his fury saying, but as for me, I have installed my king upon my holy mountain. I will surely tell the decree of the Lord, he said to me, you are my son, today I have begotten you. Verse eight, ask of me and I will surely give the nations as your inheritance, the very ends of the earth as your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and you shall shatter them like earth and wear. The next 15 minutes we're just going to begin to war. We're going to begin to take down high places in our culture, spirit of accusation, spirit of intimidation. So I encourage you, this is the time to press in, to pray the scriptures. So Lord, we just come to you right now and Lord, we recognize that kings, wickedness of kings are unifying, but Lord, you sit in the heavens, unfazed, unfazed and perfect peace and you begin to laugh and scoff because you know that you hold authority, you hold all power and you will break the back of the enemy with your rod of iron. So right now, Lord, we just go to the high places in our city, but we go to the high places of the spirit of fear, the spirit of doubt, the spirit of witchcraft, Lord, the political spirit, the religious spirit. We just say, you will be cast low by the name of Jesus. We just begin to war in the spirit as sons and daughters in heavenly places in perfect peace. We just say every high idol, every exalted thing against the name of God, be brought low in the name of Jesus. We just say be brought low in the name of Jesus. Just begin to name a principality and say be brought low in the name of Jesus. Anything that exalts its name against the name of Jesus, we declare in Jesus' name, be brought low in Jesus' name. Yes, Lord, we just ask for the spirit of Elijah to fall on the church again that would line up all the idols, all the prophets of fail and say, let's see who your God is. Let's see who the one true living God is. The one true living God. We just prophesy over our schools in the city. You're the one true living God. Verse 11 says worship the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling. Do you homage to the Son that he not become angry and you perish in the way? For his wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in him. Lord, we just call forth the fear of the Lord. Lord, at every place, every high place, every political place, every school board, Lord, every business, Lord, every place of influence, we just call forth the fear of the Lord, where there's been the fear of man. Lord, where there's been a spirit of fear from the enemy. We just call forth the fear of the Lord. We just call forth a reverence for your holy name. Lord, I pray that you would shake up unbelievers. God, I pray you would encounter them by your spirit. Lord, I thank you that you're releasing them of addiction, of principalities, of confusion. We just pray that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of clarity, the Spirit of Christ would come and invade, would come and it would produce a reverence and a fear of the Lord in the high places. God, we pray over professors at Western Michigan right now. Lord, I pray your love would encounter them. God, I pray if they're preaching a different gospel that you would shake them up. Lord, you would shake them up. Lord, where there's been the worship of creation instead of the Creator. God, I pray you would flip the script. Lord, I pray that you would bring a spirit of sobriety right now. God over homes, over families, over businesses, over school boards right now. God, we just begin to prophesy. Just begin to even speak over your sphere of influence. Begin to prophesy. Lord, you control. You reign. You rule. We release the fear of the Lord right now. Over Portage, over Vicksburg, over Galesburg, over Augusta, over Richland, over downtown Kalamazoo, over the Vine neighborhood, the north side, Westwood, up into Plainwell and out Seagull. Wherever you're from, just begin to claim, Lord, I'm putting a stake in the ground. You rule. You reign. Lord, would you come in justice and would you restore reverence in Jesus' name? Just begin to co-sign the check here. Let's join in with this chorus. Let's agree with him and invite him into our places to where we are. Come and invade. Shake us up. Shake us up. We want you in our house of prayer, but Lord, we just say we want you in our workplace. We want you in our families. Just these last few minutes, let's just begin to sound the alarm of intercession. Let's just begin to take our rightful place. As Ephesians said, we're seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. Lord, we just come into agreement with your prayer on earth as it is in heaven. Lord, we just release heaven's agenda right now. Lord Jesus, you said, therefore go. All authority's been given to me, therefore go. So Lord, right now, we just beseech the Lord of the harvest. And Lord, we just intercede and we say send laborers into the harvest field. And Lord, if there's a harvest you want me to individually label for, we just say yes to that this morning. We just re-up and we just say, Lord, the harvest is plentiful. The workers are few. Lord, we just intercede. We just say, send laborers into your harvest field. Lord, the war is not people against people, but the war is spiritual and principalities. So God, every binding spirit, every spirit of torment. Lord, we just say, be cast low in Jesus' name. Lord, we just speak right now that you would raise up intercessors. You would raise up prophets. You would raise up evangelists, pastors, teachers and apostles. Lord, you would just raise up the businessman. You would raise up the CEO. You would raise up the teacher. You would raise up the ministry school student. Lord, you would raise up the nine to five people. Lord, the ordinary mom and dad. God, you don't need an excellent resume. You just need a yes. So Lord, we just say yes to you this morning. God, we ask and we intercede. We just say, would the yes arise in your bride? Lord, would the yes arise in your city? We just put on the ambassador of Christ and we just say, come and invade. We just say, heaven, come. Heaven, come on earth as it is in heaven. We just ask for a portal to be open in our city. Lord, would you awaken the intercessor? Would you awaken the groan on the inside from a place of security, from a place of peace? We intercede from peace, not worry. So right now, would we take our rightful place? Just begin to, just begin to open your mouth. Just begin to prophesy over your family, over your city, over your workplace. We just take our spot on the wall. We say, heaven, come, heaven, come, heaven, come, heaven, come in Jesus' name. We will not be passing, but just like the live go, we will call faith. This is your city, God. Come take your inheritance. Come take your inheritance, God. Here, here on earth as it is in heaven, God. We just declare right now that Kalamazoo would be a place that would resemble and look like heaven here on the earth. God, we pray that your name would be exalted. Every other spirit, every other idol would be cast low. Lord, would you just even give us a picture of what it would look like for heaven to invade our sphere of influence, our sphere of influence where we work, where we reside? Lord, I pray right now that we would be the releases of heaven on the earth by your spirit. Let's just begin to cry out for our city. Just begin to cry out for revival. Lord, send your spirit. Lord, send your power. Lord, send your glory. Just crying out. We just say we want you here. We want you in this city. We want you in our neighborhoods. We just say, rest, God, rest in this city. Bring about sobriety. Lord, break off addiction. We just say we want you more. Pour out your spirit. Pour out your spirit upon this city, upon this region, upon Southwest Michigan. This is beginning to sound the alarm with our praise. Sound the alarm with this chorus. Come on, let's just begin to shout it out. Just begin to claim it out. Just say Hosanna. Hosanna. Come, Lord Jesus. Come, Lord Jesus. Come, Lord Jesus. Let's just begin to say that. Come, Lord Jesus. Come, Lord Jesus. Come, Lord Jesus. Have your way. Have your way, Lord. We just say we want you here. We want you here. We want you here, Lord. We thank you for coming this morning, Lord. We just say we want you here. We want you in our workplace. We want you in our families. Would you exalt yourself above every principalities? Just as we close verse 10 in Psalm chapter 2, it says, Now therefore, O kings, show discernment and take warning, O judges of the earth. Worship the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling. We just put the devil on notice this morning. We just say, we just say show discernment for the Lord is coming. For the Lord is coming and he will rule with his rod of iron. And we thank you for it in Jesus' name. Everybody said amen. Amen. Thank you for joining us for prayer this morning. Pray that you be blessed. Carry the fragrance. Carry the authority of Christ. Carry the peace of God without condition to know that you are fashioned to rule and reign and bring heaven to earth. Amen. Have a blessed day.