 Welcome to prayer and from those of you who are at home this morning, welcome to morning prayer as well as we're in the heart of our season that we call seek. It's a time dedicated 21 days of prayer and fasting to seek after the Lord and to pray and to fast corporately as well as individually. And so this is let's see it's day three. I think it's day three and we're going to be praying out of Ephesians chapter one today's focus this whole first week is focused on heart. We're going to be praying specifically for a spirit of revelation, wisdom, knowledge. And so in a little bit I want to encourage you even at home to have your Bibles and journals, your seek booklets and and whatever it is that's going to help you connect and to record what the Holy Spirit is highlighting as we're spending some time this morning in His presence, first of all ministering to His heart. Above anything else our highest calling is to be priests before God and a priest is focused on ministering to the Lord. And so we're going to first begin by doing that, entering into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise and blessing and ministering to the heart of our Father. And then we're going to spend some time in prayer out of Ephesians chapter one this great apostolic prayer asking for the Lord to do what He invited us to ask Him to do, which is to release the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Him. But I want to begin this morning by just reading a few verses out of Psalm 99. Psalm 99 starts with these three powerful words. It says, the Lord reigns. The Lord reigns, let the people tremble. He dwells between the cherubim. Let the earth be moved. The Lord is great in Zion. And He is high above all the peoples. Let them praise your great name and your awesome name. He is holy. What this Psalm does like many of the Psalms do begin with is it brings our focus higher, minds us that above it all Jesus reigns. Above it all there is a name that's higher than any other name. There is a throne that's higher than any other throne. Work for us to remember because there's so many other thrones that are trying to establish themselves in the highest place in our lives, in our attention, and in our focus. But there's one who's the highest and it's our God. He reigns. When that happens, there's a tremble that's restored in our hearts. The tremble, that awesome fear of the Lord, that reverence for the Lord, also causes the gates of hell to tremble and to shake. It's so important that this morning you are reminded that the God who dwells in the heavens is enthroned. But he's also the God who dwells in you. And he sits on the throne of your heart this morning. What an invitation that we have to draw near to that throne. The writer of keepers calls it a throne of mercy, a throne of grace. And that we can draw near to his throne of mercy in times of need. Every day is a new opportunity for us to recognize our great need again. So this morning let's just begin with uplifted hands and uplifted hearts. Jesus, we declare, you reign above it all, Jesus. You reign above every principality, you reign above every power, every name that is named in the heavens, on the earth, under the earth. No greater name than the name of Jesus. Lord, he's given you a name above every name and today we recognize that we recall, we remember and we remind our hearts of your authority, of your power, of your resurrection, defeating death that your enemies are being made your footstool. We come boldly before your throne of grace, O God, to offer the sacrifice of praise. To give you the fruit of our lips, the sacrifice of praise, the songs and the melodies out of our heart and the thanksgiving of a life that's been changed and transformed. Just begin to right now stir up thankfulness and gratitude out of your heart. It might even just be by saying thank you, lifting up your hands, singing a melody. Just begin to give him thanks. Deems us and makes a new and living way. Lord, our response back to you. Jesus, we love you because you first love them. Jesus, we love you because your love has been shed abroad in our hearts by your Holy Spirit. God, even the gift, even the ability to say that was first a gift from you, enable us, you grace us to love you. Lord, with all our heart and with all our soul, when Christ you have lavished your lust for today, we even profess that more than silver, more than gold. Far above, we've ever experienced this, that the Father has lavished upon us, that we might be called the children. As imperfect as our love is, Lord, we give it back to you. We want to love you with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength. Lord, we want to give you what you desire most, a heart that's undivided, that loves you back as a Father. Begin this prayer set by, verse 8 says that you would do, which is from within us. Help our heart to cry out. We're no longer enemies and strangers of foreigners from God, called sons and daughters of the living God. And then teach our hearts to respond, to echo the voice of the Holy Spirit that says, I'm a Father. I want this to be our prayer this morning. You have to sing it before the emotions follow that. As you said, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments out of the overflow of expanded obligation. But I won this morning and we're going to shift gears into praying, great apostolic prayer, believers at Ephesus and also to us as well, this prayer of his that we're joining in on this morning, 1 verse 15. Therefore, I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God, and here's the prayer, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory to you, the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you might know what is the hope of his calling and what are the riches of the grittans in the saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power towards us who believe. And as we sing it, as we pray, because as we do what happens is the blades of the Holy Spirit, like a plow, as we say it and pray it and sing it, not only is it become a prayer before the Lord begins deep on the inside of us. And so we're going to just pray through this Lord today. We sign on to this prayer. We're asking that just as he did not cease in the giving of thanks and in this prayer of that Lord, our repetition of this prayer and focusing and praying on our hearts, that our hearts are that good soil that Jesus spoke of, that received the word and produced 3060 and 100 fold fruitfulness. That's what we long for. We long for the reality of your kingdom, work, and your fruit of our lives and the reality of this prayer. Lord, we're praying today for Jesus that you would give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Jesus, that same mantle, that same anointing that is spoken of in Isaiah chapter 11. When you describe the anointing that Jesus carried, it says that it was a spirit of wisdom and knowledge and counsel and might and power in the fear of the Lord. Or today that that same Holy Spirit that dwells in us and that same anointing would rise up today in Holy Spirit, that in every believer you would release today and activate wisdom, revelation, heart to not be moved just by the intellect and the logic and the mental assent that we have of Scripture and Bible and religion. But Lord, we want there to be a spirit of wisdom and revelation that's released, that the Holy Spirit would do exactly what Jesus said that he would do. He would come and lead us. And Lord, we confess our great need of that today, that in ourselves and in our own strength, Lord, we're blinded, we're dull in our senses, we're easily deceived, and there is a way that seems right to a man. But Lord, we surrender that today and we invite you, Holy Spirit, to release wisdom and revelation. Blessed are you, Simon Bar-John, Lord, he had a revelation of who you were. Jesus, you are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. We are asking this morning for that same revelation that comes from you that surpasses the knowledge of flesh and blood, strength of the flesh, strength of the arm. Lord, we're asking for you, Father, to give to us insight and revelation into the beauty and into the authority and the power of your resurrected, glorified Son, Jesus. Lord, we want to understand from the deep place of our heart. That's what Paul was praying, Father, when he said, Lord, that the eyes of our understanding would be enlightened. Lord, we want understanding, not just knowledge, not just to be able to recite a creed or to be able to state some facts, but Lord, we want deep, deep, deep understanding that is not revealed from flesh and blood. And we want it in the knowledge of who you are today, God. So as we draw near to you in intimacy, Lord, as we draw near to you in the place of prayer, Jesus, would you encounter us such a way that you would open the eyes of our heart, open the eyes of our heart in this season as we're reading Scripture and as we're reading devotions and as we're praying and fasting, that you would unlock the doors of revelation. Lord, that the keys of insight and understanding would open doors to new understanding of you and your ways. God, like Moses said, we want to know your ways. Lord, help us teach us to see the different facets of your wisdom and your counsel and your might and your power and your kindness, your goodness and your judgments and your mercy. Open the eyes of our heart today. Open the eyes of our understanding and Lord, today whatever is holding us back, whatever is hindering revelation, whether it's the traditions of men, our religious filters or even our past experiences or deception or lies that we believe today. Lord, pull those veils back. Remove those calluses and those counteracts off of our eyes that we might see you as you truly are today, God. We want to know you as you really are. We want to see you clearly, accurately. We want to understand you today. Well, let's ask them to do that this morning. We want to know you, Paul said, of your resurrection as well as in the fellowship so far. Lord, we want to know you, not just know about you. We're asking for you, not just to release understanding, but Lord, insight into the hope of the calling that we have in you. Why you've called us, Lord, countless, countless multitudes in the valley of decision, countless multitudes, stumbling in the dark because of a lack of revelation. Lord, when we see you, that when you encounter us, Lord, just like Paul on the road to Damascus suddenly, our understanding of our calling, which is first and foremost unto you, it comes clear in our hearts. Lord, I'm praying for the dullness that oftentimes glazes the hearts of Christians where they come to church weekend and week out, but throughout the week are bored or focused on so many other things and miss the holy calling that we have in Christ Jesus. Lord, I'm praying today that you would move beyond that and pull that veil back and release understanding that activates hope in people's hearts that they were called, as First Timothy chapter one says, to a holy calling. Lord, that we've been called to a holy calling. We were not a people, but now we are a people. We were foreigners and enemies of God, but now we are children of God. We were outsiders, but now we are kings and priests before you. Lord, would you give us insight into the hope of our calling? Hope that is only found in you, Jesus, that you call this out of darkness into your marvelous light. Expand our hearts to understand why you would call us of what you've called us for. Praying for hope today. Multitudes who are in the valley of hopelessness, who feel forgotten about, who feel overlooked, who feel disconnected, but Lord, there is hope in you. Jesus, you are our hope. You are the anchor of our hope. Would you open up the eyes of our heart and our understanding that we might fully see the hope that we have in you, Jesus? Even as we read the scriptures, day by day that we would see the wealth of inheritance that we have in Christ Jesus, not just with earthly, vaguely riches, the riches of revelation, the riches of relationship, eternal life that you've given to us, the great and precious covenant promises. But this is our inheritance. We don't want to be paupers in the spirit who are rich on paper, but poor in experience. We don't want to be like those who walk around in ignorance because we have no idea that we have such a vast inheritance. Holy Spirit, would you give us insight into the great and precious promises that are yes and amen in Christ Jesus over our lives, show us the wealth, show us the spiritual inheritance that we have in Christ Jesus with all the saints, as well as the power of your Holy Spirit at work to activate and engage that Lord. We have such need. Today I just want us to take a moment right where you're at. I just want you to, as the musicians play and sing over you in these last few moments, I want you to I want you to just soak the grace giver of heaven into a state of understanding and maturity. Just want the musicians to sing over you. I want you to meditate on and welcome the Holy Spirit.