 Welcome to morning prayer on this beautiful Wednesday. We have the honor and the privilege this morning to come before our sovereign King, to seek Him, to pray, to worship Him, to exalt Him, to extol Him, to bless Him, to stand in the gap on behalf of other people all around the world. And before we do that, I'm just reminded that regardless of the day that we're walking into, this is the day that He has made. I didn't make it, you didn't make it. The conversations that you're going into with the people that you have to have them with, they didn't make it, the Lord made this day. And so we as the people of God, we get to choose to rejoice and be glad in Him. We're going to make the intentional decision to walk into this day with rejoicing of our hearts and with the joy of our minds. In Psalm 105, the psalmist says, Oh, give thanks to the Lord. Call upon His name. Make known His deeds among the peoples. Sing to Him. Sing praises to Him. Tell of all His wondrous works. Glory in His name. Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Seek the Lord in His strength. Seek His presence continually. Remember the wondrous works that He has done, His miracles and the judgments He uttered. Lord, we come to You this morning and we just thank You. Lord, we start off this morning of this day, this Wednesday morning, October 18, 2023. And Lord, if we just say we begin this day, we mark this day by saying we thank You for this day. We thank You for this day, Lord. We thank You for the breath in our lungs that we are even able to say thank You. We thank You, Lord, for this day that You have made. And Lord, right now we call upon Your name. But whether we are in this room right now or we're in our car or we're at our office or we're at home. Lord, we call upon Your name and we ask that Your presence would fill the spaces that we are gathered in right now. Lord, I pray today that we would recall to mind the wonderful things that You have done, the incredible deeds that You have done among Your people and for Your people and with Your people and to Your people. We recall them to our mind, Lord God, the miracles that we have written down in Your Word. We recall to mind the miracles that You have done in our lives throughout the days, Lord God, whether we recognize them or not. Oh, Spirit within us, Lord God, would You recall the memories and the miracles that You have done. Spirit of God, would You resurrect them within us that we may not fear what we're walking into, that we may not have trepidation in our minds or worry within our hearts, Lord God. Because we recall how good You are and how great You are and how powerful You are in the midst of everything that we've already been through. So Lord, here we are and we seek You. We seek You, Lord. We have come to seek You in Your presence continually. We seek You, Lord. We love You. We remember Your wondrous works. We remember Your miracles. We remember Your judgments, Lord God. We remember that we recall them to the forefront of our mind, despite the schedule that we have today, despite the opposition that we might have today. We remember, Lord. We recall, Lord. We recollect Your wondrous works, Lord. Oh, we thank You, Lord, for You are good. We thank You, Jesus. In my head, I know that the articulation of awesome falls incredibly short of how truly awesome and spectacular and extravagant and marvelous You are, but Lord God, it's our best. So Lord, from right here, right now, in this moment, in this place, with every ounce of belief and faith within us, we just say, God, You are awesome. You are awesome. With our ability to comprehend, You are awesome. You are awesome. You are so awesome. Lord, I pray that Your awesomeness would overwhelm us, that the grandeur of Your awesomeness would shake us at our core and that a holy fear would arise within us, that we would not just settle for goosebumps, but, Lord, that we would truly be shaken by the awesomeness of Your glory and Your splendor and Your holiness. Shake us, Lord. Shake us. Cause the walls that we have erected and built up in the rooms that we have erected and built up in all of the spaces that we have erected and built up of ourselves and by ourselves and for ourselves. Lord, I pray that Your awesomeness would cause those walls to shake and to crumble today and that we would truly be overwhelmed by who You are. The way Moses was overwhelmed. Would You overwhelm us? The way Joshua was overwhelmed. Would You overwhelm us? Overwhelm us with Your presence, Lord. You are awesome. And every battle that we have, whether it's in our mind or in our hearts, whether it's at work or at home, belongs to You. And You are king. You are victor. You are undefeated. You are unrivaled. You are unmatched. Battle belongs to You, Lord. And so even in the midst of the valley, even in the midst of the war, Lord, we know and we trust and we believe that victory will come because You are king. You are Lord. You're not Lord of some. You're Lord of all. You're not Lord over some. You are Lord over all. Lay ourselves down at Your feet. We say, Holy are You Lord. We want more of You. We need more of You. We want the world to know You. So Lord, in the goodness, would You shake us? Would You rattle us? Would You cause us to crumble? Would You cause us to not have words but only groans? Because we're so overwhelmed. Would we be like John in Revelation 19 when he saw a glimpse of You come returning? He said, Oh, a white horse and a rider. Oh, a white horse and his rider. Oh, Lord, would You overwhelm us with Your presence? Would You overwhelm us with Your awesomeness? Would You overwhelm us, God? Overwhelm us. Strike us with the Holy Fears. Struck Isaiah. Strike us, Lord, with the Holy Fears. Wake us up for our slumber. Wake your church up, Lord. We are slumbering. We are sleeping. Wake us up. Wake us up, Lord. Your church up. Wake husbands up. Wake fathers up. Wake wives up. Wake mothers up, Lord. God, sound the alarm, Lord. Wake us up, Lord. We've been sleeping for too long. We've been worried about the wrong things for too long. We've been stressed out for too long. Wake us up, Lord. Wake us up. Wake us up, Lord. Wake us up. Over the last week with everything that's happening in the Middle East with Israel and with Palestine and just everything happening over there. And I think one of the things that the Lord is doing right now is opening our eyes to Israel and His heart and His love for Israel. So I want to shift us in this moment to stand in the gap on behalf of Israel to intercede to war in spiritually high places for Israel and in Isaiah chapter 49 starting verse 25. It says, for it thus says the Lord, even the captives of the mighty shall be taken and the prey of the tyrant be rescued. For I will contend with those who contend with you and I will save your children. I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine. Then all flesh shall know. They shall know that I am the Lord your Savior, your Redeemer, the mighty one of Jacob. Lord, we declare and we will, Lord, first of all, we know that Israel belongs to you and Lord, as much as anger as we have and frustration and hurt that we are feeling in the midst of this moment that we find ourselves in watching the news hearing stories on social media reading of arguments back and forth between this whole thing. Lord, we know that you are more upset about it than we are. We know that this upsets you more than it upsets us, Lord. And so right now, Lord, we stand in the gap on behalf of Israel and we ask, Father, that you would contend with those who contend with Israel, that you would save the children who have been held captive and taken hostage, Lord, that, Lord, just like you did with Peter and with Paul, Lord, in different moments, you opened up prison cells, you loosened shackles, Lord God in a powerful move of your spirit, Lord God, your people. So, Lord, I pray that right now you would release the children that you would open up cells or the cages that they are being held in, Lord God that you would open them up and they would walk out freely, Lord. Would you save the children? Would you contend with those who contend with Israel, Lord? Would you save them from the hand of the tyrant? Would you rescue them, God? Lord, I pray that even right now that those who are attacking and conspiring against Israel that just like you did with the Philistines, God that you would do with them, that they would turn on each other, Lord that you would cause such a confusion among them that they would actually turn on each other, Lord to cause them, Lord, to turn on each other those who contend with Israel, Lord God would you step in and contend with them to save them, Lord God would you redeem them, would you let the world through this moment in history know that you are gone that you are Lord would you save in this moment, would you restore in this moment would you set captives free in this moment would you cause this war to cease in this moment, Lord God Lord, just like you did with Daniel would you do with Israel when he was thrown in the lions, he was surrounded by lions a place in that den but what we do know is that Daniel wasn't touched that Daniel wasn't harmed that the lions backed up that the lions were scared of him we don't know what happened, Lord God but Lord, I pray that that same thing would happen in Israel right now that as they're surrounded by the lions of the enemy looking to devour set on wiping your people off the face of this earth, Lord God Lord, I pray that you would shut their mouths that you would silence their mouths that you would close their mouths, Lord and that they would not have any forward progress on Israel that they would have no, there would be no more death in Israel, Lord God an only life Lord, would you turn their enemies against themselves, Lord would you rescue them and redeem them in Jesus' name you are mighty to save would hope arise in Israel not in and of themselves but in and of you that you are mighty to save Lord, even though they may have forgotten what you have promised we know that you you do not forget we know that you have them engraved on the palm of your hand we know that the walls of Israel are continually before your eyes the land of Israel is continually people of Israel so Lord, I pray for a resurgence of hope to return to your people that remembrance who you are and what you have done would come to them that the floodgates of remembrance would flood back to Israel and that they would not forget that you are mighty to save and that you are their healer you are their rescuer you are their savior you are their Lord you will never forget them it takes my eyes to Calvary and every season of introduce me to walked with me for every month and every shaking or storm this is where I call my home where foundations have stood the test of time oh, take me back and every shaking or storm this is where you say to this is where I cry your head oh, this is solid this is where I'm found just looking at the this is holy where you say to me oh, this is solid ground every time this is where I'm found just looking at the oh, this is holy where you say to this is solid the noise of social media the noise of our schedules and our appointments the noise of our affections and our desires the noise of worry and uncertainty Jesus, it's really easy to get caught up with all that noise Lord, we silence the noise and we remember your cross captivate us with the cross Lord, captivate us with the cross even though the noise continues but you captivate us with the cross that we would not just go from 60 minutes here and 60 minutes there or 30 minutes here and 30 minutes there or Sunday to Sunday but Lord, captivate us with the cross daily in the midst of the noise in the midst of the schedules in the midst of the arguments in the midst of the tension in the midst of the uncertainty in the midst of the problems in the midst of the pain Lord, would you captivate us with the cross cause our eyes to become captivated with the cross captivate us, Lord Lord, I'm just reminded of what Paul said in Colossians 2 starting verse 13 and you who were dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh God made alive together with him having forgiven us of all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands this he set aside nailing it to the cross he disarmed the rulers and authorities and he put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him Jesus, we thank you for the cross we thank you that the cross speaks a better word, a different word that it's all cancelled in and through you Jesus, you paid it all Jesus, you paid it all you paid it all and I pray right now that I say that you paid when I say, Lord, that you paid it all that weight would fall off his shoulders that shame would fall off of shoulders that fear would fall off of shoulders whether in this room, Lord or listening online Jesus, you paid it all and we, right now in the authority that you have given us and the reality of what that means that you paid it all that whoever is being attacked by shame and doubt self-condemnation Jesus, you paid it all I pray that that weight would fall off now in the name of Jesus that the cancer of shame would fall off of your people wash the doubts I'll sign this over Israel right now this is the apostle Paul and he's speaking of his brothers sisters he's speaking of his very people the Israelites, the Jews he says, my desire is that they would be saved Lord, I pray right now that you would give us your heart for Israel not our heart not man's heart not a political party's heart not an agenda's heart but your heart Lord, would you give us your heart would you give your church your heart for Israel that we would pray for them that they would be saved that they would know the blood of Jesus that they would see the cross and not despise it that they would see the cross and fall before it and cry out for the blood of Jesus Lord, give us your heart for Israel that they would be saved I pray that we would not just go for an hour thinking and interceding and praying for Israel Lord, God, but that you would cause us to remember Israel all day long and that we would truly be watchmen on the wall standing in the gap on behalf of Israel and cry out to you on behalf of them Lord, would you save Israel would you save Israel Lord, we love you we thank you for this day that you have made we go into it rejoicing with gladness in it Amen, thank you for joining us this morning whether in the room or online right now we are going to continue in a posture of worship and intercession and adoration with a devotional set so if you are in the room I want to invite you if you want to talk with anybody or I want to invite you down to go down to match head and continue a conversation maybe in match head but if you want to stay in the room and continue to seek the Lord seek His presence continually to cry out to pray I want to invite you to stay in the room as we continue to seek Him together