 Well good morning everyone we're so glad you're joining us for prayer this morning. You know there's no better place to be in the beginning of your day and start of the morning than in the presence of the Lord to draw near to him. His heart is so tender towards us we want to respond to that tenderness and have our heart cultivated by the Holy Spirit. Just plow off the hardened ground get it soft to get it pliable again ready to receive all that God has to say to us his word is living his word is active word is as Jesus said it's like a seed that's sewn into our hearts and we want to make sure that our hearts are good soil and one of the things that I believe helps cultivate our hearts on a daily regular schedule is worship and just being in his presence singing and worshiping putting our focus and our gaze upon him this morning that's what morning prayers about that's your secret time with Jesus in the secret place well you know this morning that his heart is towards you he has a smile on his face he looks at you he loves you his eyes are filled with pride and the heart of your father is drawing near to you he's not angry with you he's not indifferent towards you he's he won't ignore you he's a faithful faithful God. David understood that even in the Old Testament long before there were the fulfillment of those promises made manifest in Jesus David understood the heart of God it's how God actually described David he's a man after my own heart years after David the worship leaders in the psalmist in Psalm 132 makes reference to this heart of David he says remember oh Lord in David's favor all the hardships that he endured how he swore to the Lord and vowed to the mighty one of Jacob that I will not enter my house or get into my bed I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids until I find a place for the Lord a dwelling place for the mighty one of Jacob the legacy of David was the vow that he made in his heart to the Lord when he said God I'm not going to make anything else a priority beyond or above your presence being at the center of my life and the way David expressed is I want to find a resting place for the Lord it's interesting to me that God views our heart turned towards him as a place that he finds rest a place where he will come he will abide and he will dwell today if your heart she'll open it up even as imperfectly as we do and we just say Lord here I am easily distracted easily stressed got so many things going on in my life but I'm turning my heart towards you and I'm opening up my heart today and I'm saying a Holy Spirit come with that soft refreshing reign of your presence and would you soften my heart once again would you remind me of how good you are would you remind me of how near you are because I know that I need you and I just say ah but I belong to you and when we do that Lord you're so faithful to come and to rest in this moment and in this place so right now Lord we just say at home in our living rooms wherever we're at this morning doesn't matter how far away we are from this prayer room we're never more than a word away from your presence and we just say Lord come and make this moment come and make this prayer set come and make where we are a resting place for your presence come Holy Spirit come Lord Jesus come our Heavenly Father and rest in this place like David prayed we invite you to come and as we do as we sing and as we pray Lord let your faithfulness and an awareness of your nearness to settle the anxieties and the burdens of our hearts today because your presence is here just to host you in perfect union Lord this is what we were created for be a resting place your presence Lord that our heart would be the mercy seat on which your glory dwells Jesus prayed this very prayer he said Lord Father as you and I are one David somehow grasped this concept grasped this reality this truth by revelation that his whole life whether it was being a king whether it was being a shepherd or whether it was being an exile on the run it was centered in you he said in Psalm 16 verse 8 I have set the Lord before me he is at my right hand and therefore I will not be shaken confidence in David's life was your presence the Lord today I'm praying that our heart would receive that same revelation of your nearness same revelation of this one thing that is needful this one thing above all other things is to host you it's to welcome you it's to be a resting place for you and to create an atmosphere and an environment in which you are worshiped which you are honored Father where your glory is revealed in us Lord today we want our hearts to be so turned towards you that just as David made this vow that was remembered for generations to come and still today we stand in awe of a of a human's heart who was so struck by you that Lord we we use it as the metric by which we measure our even our own hearts Lord today I'm praying that there would be a revelation in us today of this one thing is David prayed in Psalm 27 this one thing will I seek that I might dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life Lord a resting place gaze upon the beauty of the Lord open up our hearts and make them so resolute towards you and so laser focused we are your resting place we are the resting place of God we are the temple of the Holy Spirit we are living stones being built up to be a spiritual dwelling place for your presence we are a holy priesthood who are created to wear the ephod of worship and to offer up the incense of intercession and it's only by the blood of Jesus that this is possible Lord it's only you who opened the door and invited us in so as we invite you in Lord today we accept your invitation to come behind the veil to move out of the outer courts and into the holy place where you are to offer up our incense to offer up our prayers and our praise to the faithful covenant keeping God overtake us this morning that causes us like David to say I will not give rest to my eyes there is a resting place for the presence of the Lord Lord make us people of your presence make us people of the vow that David made will be singular in our focus in our devotion and our dedication Lord that doesn't come just by our own initiative it comes by getting a glimpse of you eternal significance of setting our lives on one thing setting our lives on you the one thing the better part that cannot be taken away praying that in this hour you would give you would give us the body of Christ hearts filled and marked by the vow and to seek you as people as people of your presence Lord that in everything else that we do we would be people that magnetically are pulled back into your presence pulled back into the place of prayer pulled back into the place of worship pulled back into the place of standing and intercession where we're in union with you in the resting place in the secret place with you in this age and in this era where we're so easily distracted and our attention span is so small Lord where there's so many things that we get a vest our time and our energy and our love into our passions can be as thin and as shallow as the water on the sidewalk after a rain but Lord we want there to be pools wells cisterns in our lives that are deep and overflowing tapped into the spring of your presence because our life is set on the priority of your presence as David made this vow Lord raise up the people in this hour of the vow the Psalm 132 vow who said I'm gonna make my life about your presence I'm gonna waste it the world's gonna look at and say you're wasting your time you're wasting your energy God's giving you all this talent God's giving you all this and all you all you focus on is growing in prayer all you focus on is spending time in worship and spending time in the presence of the Lord and we say yes and amen so we're gonna pour out the oil of our hearts we're gonna pull our pour out the songs we're not gonna sing about the trophies of man we're not gonna live for the industries of this world we're not gonna use our craftsmanship to craft idols that other people gaze upon we want our life to be marked by the presence of God that reflect and radiate the glory of God people who cannot be pulled from your presence people whose most comfortable clothing is the ephah to praise raise up a raise up a people a priest and kings before you who are very much at home in your presence hosting you ride the church look at you and with first love flag as we gaze upon you as we meditate on you as our lives are pointed towards you Lord may our heart never become familiar with your presence comfortable but Lord raise up a people a prayer raise up a people a presence raise up a people who prioritize their lives around building a resting place for you God we're praying that here we're praying that in us and we're praying that all across the landscape wherever your church is once again there would be a a people raised up in this hour whose full focus is on you living out of the spirit of revelation and wisdom the midst of difficulties even in the midst of hardships Psalm 132 says remember the hardships of David even in the middle of the difficult seasons even in the middle of the questions and in the mysteries of David's life he never took his eyes off of you you are the rock and the stability of his heart Lord today we say you alone are our rock and our salvation you are our fortress we will not be moved full of unanswered questions Lord our gaze is never going to move off of you our eyes are fixed on you you alone are our strength your beauty alone is what brings peace and rest strength to our inner man our stability is in you that our strength that our foundations are in you revelation of your glory presence that forever marks us and changes us but wrecks us for anything less than your glory and your presence Lord I'm praying for moms I'm praying for students I'm praying for businessmen I'm praying for older men and older women I'm praying for children Lord that we would be a generation marked by those who have been captivated by your presence marked by the presence of God even one of the Ark right next to his house so that he could come and he could be in your presence on a daily basis Lord raise up a people where the presence of God is their daily bread this is our daily bread Lord your word your voice your presence that would be at rest in our homes and in our lives praying it over families today Lord that our homes would become resting places for your presence alters where you are very much at home Lord raise up a generation of people who even in spite of all the different complexities and things that we have going on in our lives come back to this one true center this one true north of your presence that I must be in the presence of the Lord that keeps our heart of flame with love for you you told the priest in the book of Leviticus do not let the flame on the altar go out Lord we want to be those that stoke the flames of love for you on the altars of our life may our flame never die out God holy spirit only you can blow on the embers of our heart and fan into flame our love fan into flame our worship all across the landscape of your church all across the city Lord we're praying for those whose heart would become a flame again with first love for you in every church in every community across Kalamazoo County Lord we're praying that you would raise up a people who would say like David I will give no rest to my eyes I will not give rest to my life until the presence of the Lord is honored and at rest over this city come and make us your dwelling place Jesus let's receive this as I pray over you over us of your son place upon us Lord that you would place upon us a holy unction to live in pursuit of your presence Lord would you do it in us and would you do it in our families would you do it in our city would you mark a generation out as those who hold in their hands the keys of David keys of intimacy that give access to the heart to the emotions and to the will of you our Father holy spirit would you place today an anointing the legitimate physical mental presence of God that causes us to be attractive and magnetic to your presence and your pleasure we can't just manufacture it Lord we need the anointing today I'm praying it doesn't matter who we are if this is if this is even the 10% desire of our heart is we're praying this I'm praying that Lord by your grace place this mantle in this spirit this calling upon us today Psalm 132 like David give us the spirit of David today we pray Jesus name for you we're believing that for us as a people it's one of the reasons why we have prayer every day it's one of the reasons why we have the prayer room just want to encourage you please you needed and we want you to be a part of what God is doing from this nuclear reactor called the prayer room we want you to come and join us today at noon tonight at 6 30 p.m. let's draw near to the presence of the Lord let's host his presence God bless you have a great day