Prayer Works Morning Devotion: May 19, 2025

"Waiting On The Holy Spirit - Getting Our Hearts Ready for Pentecost"

"Isaiah 61:1-3 - The Year Of The Lord's Favor "

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Good morning and a wonderful morning to everybody. I hope you had a wonderful evening, well rested, ready for another day and ready for another week. Let us go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we come before you this morning.  

We thank you for your love. We thank you for all that you have done and all that you're still going to do. Thank you for your Grace. We thank you Lord for your purpose. We thank you for anointing.  

We thank you Lord for all you've planned for us to do today and even years to come. Father we humble ourselves before you this morning knowing that it’s you will make all things possible in our lives. Our reliance on you is completely on you. 

So, Father, we bless you and honor you for all that you are still going to do. We'll look forward in anticipation for your word says nor have seen, no ear has heard, neither has it entered our hearts.  

What you have prepared for us that love you and we know we love you and we know you prepare something for us. And we are praying, Lord, that in this season you open our hearts and our minds so we can receive what you have in store for us so we can begin to develop faith for those things.  

So we bless you and honor you. Bless us, as we look at these scriptures and as we devote this morning time to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray, Amen. Today we are in Isaiah 61:1-3.  

The spirits of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening up of the prisons to those who were bound.  

To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God. To comfort or human to control those who mourn in Zion. To give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy.  

The oil of joy for mourning, the government of praise for the spirit of heaviness. That they may be called trees of righteousness. The planting of the Lord that he may be what glorified. This scripture has been quoted by Jesus quoted it.  

John the Baptist quoted it and the first thing that I want us to look at before we kind of look at it. As mission of the acceptable year of the Lord and that same year is also the day of vengeance of God.  

So the acceptable year of the Lord Jesus mentions it again. We talked about this right in this particular, it's not a day, it's not a year. It's not one particular year. It's actually an era. It's literally a whole entire era.  

Where judgment is going to take place. Grace is going to be given and that God in this time is going to usher season of deliveries so that acceptable year is an era in which God is going to make all these things abound.  

So grace, deliverance that's the acceptable year of the Lord, and in that particular year also judgment has happened. So this year that's been talked about starts with Jesus coming. That grace became abound and judgment began to take place.  

That's the acceptable year of the Lord. Now the other thing I want is to pay attention to is what good preaching and good teaching should do. And this is for us also when we hear or when we listen to people preach different people. 

Whether you are watching something online, whether you are sitting in the church listening to somebody preach, or whether you are teaching or whether you get an opportunity to preach.  

We see on here what good teaching does. Isiah says, the spirit of God is upon me. So in order to preach, to teach the word of God the spirit of God has to be upon you. You can't just do it out of your own volution.  

The spirit of God has to be upon you. And the way the spirit of God has to sit on you is you have to be anointed for as Isiah says here, the Lord has anointed me the spirit of God set upon me and now that he has hit upon me, I've been anointed to preach what good tidings. 

The word tidings means news. And here is a list of what good teaching or preaching should do. Brings good news to the poor. It heals people who are broken hearted. It proclaims the liberty To people who are in captivity and it opens up prison to those who are bound.  

Now this is not jail, as in people who are in prison serving time because you can actually be out of prison and be bound. So he's talking about people who are bound in sin. That good preaching, good teaching.  

It gets people out of bondage. And to proclaim liberty captives, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. So to make an announcement that grace, deliverance has now come. So good teaching and good teaching should give grace to bring grace and then the day of vengeance of God.  

Good teaching judges the heart and good teaching comforts all those who mourn. It consoled those who mourn in Zion. It gives beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning. Garment of praise for the spirit of happiness.  

And why is all this necessary so that they may be called trees of righteousness. So when you hear good teaching, good preaching, when you preach, or when you teach the ultimate goal is that it makes people righteous or desire to be righteous.  

And for the ultimate glory of God. That's what good teaching and good preaching should do. Here’s a list of things that good, teaching and good preaching should do. If you ever get an opportunity to teach, you want to make sure one of these things is going to come through the teaching.  

This is why we as believers it's possible to sit and listen to a message. And if there is no anointing in it, right. If there's no anointing in it sometimes you can literally leave church or leave a place angry, mad because good teaching is supposed to tackle anyone of these things, if not all of them. 

This is why in a service when you can see it with a group of people, everybody is going through different things and every person will get what they are supposed to get and the reason why that happens is because you are anointed.  

What does anointing do? It breaks yolks. And what does the spirit of God do? It brings gifts. We talked about this yesterday. So this is what the spirit of God is able to do through good teaching and through good preaching.  

So this is for us who sit and listen to messages. And this is for all of us who teach, who also preach that this is a list of measurements of things that should come through during your listening, during your teaching, during your preaching.  

And when you listen to this, there's no tingling of ears that's listed here. A good word to judge the heart of men so that it can lead and push you towards righteousness. A good word should comfort those who mourn.  

A good word should bring people out of bondage at least as Isaiah says, the spirit of God is upon me. That's the very first thing that has to happen. The spirit of God has to be upon you.  

So for today I wanted to take on the place of people who hear the word. That if you are dealing with any of these things that are listed, good preaching, good teaching. You should be looking for any of this.  

If you're in bondage, dealing with an issue that is bound you. When you listen to good teaching the prayers should be that Lord let me be released from bondage. So I want to encourage all of us in our hearing, in our listening, in our paying attention.  

I know we watch a lot of things online messages from the past, messages from now, from different people. If a message is not tackling anyone of these issues pay close attention to it because this is what good preaching should do.  

Look for it in your hearing, if you are teaching make sure that you the word of God that you're giving tackles anyone of these issues. But the key thing for us since we were in this season is that the spirit of God is to be upon you.  

This is why we are tracking and this is why we are teaching on the spirit of the Lord. In anticipation for the outpouring of his spirit on Pentecost Sunday, which is June 8th. So as you can see, the broad branch of the Holy Spirit.  

Yesterday we talked about how he bring gifts, fruits of the spirits. And now he is another branch of the Holy Spirit. Preaching and good news bringing people out of bondage. Isn't it amazing how the Holy Spirit is this incredibly vast and amazing? Not only does he give gifts, but he also brings people out of bondage.  

When the whole spreads sit on a person who is preaching, this is what he does. So my prayer is that we are really getting the full scope and I don't know if we can ever get the full scope or the full.  

That's why it's called the Spirit without measure. I don't know if we can get the full scope of what the Holy Spirit can do. Because he does so many things. So as we look forward to June 8th with expectations.  

My prayer is that we continue to grow in our knowledge of the Holy Spirit, his ability and all that he is capable of doing and all that he knows. Think about if you get up to preach the Holy Spirit has been speaking to you while you're in preparation. And then you stand up there or you stand up or you get on zoom with all of us and you are teaching.  

This is all that is in the background taking place unbeknownst to you. That people are being removed from bondage. Those who were broken hearted, the spirit of readiness is disappearing and being replaced.  

Think about how you can be carrying this freed of heaviness. But through the Holy Spirit is then replaced with praise. That's unbelievable that the Holy Spirit can literally remove the spirit of happiness on the person and replaces it with praise. That's how powerful he is.  

So let us continue growing in the knowledge of the Holy Spirit and let us rightfully give him his place in our journey as believers. And let us be aware of his presence and let us give him space and room to operate in our lives.  

Because he does so much, it pretty much it does all everything. He empowers us to do everything that God has instructed us to do. So I pray today as you go through about your day and your schedules and plans and all that we want to accomplish today.  

May you continue to grow in the knowledge of the Holy Spirit, may you hear him loud and clear, may your ears attentive to his leaning. If you are dealing with any of these things may you be exonerated from bondage. The spirit of health is be replaced with spirit of praise, garment of praise.  

So, Father, we thank you for the gift of Holy Spirit. We receive him because that's our only part to receive the gift we receive and we give him place in our lives to operate, to instruct, to give us understanding, knowledge and wisdom.  

We're thank you Lord that in our interactions with him may we continue to grow in the knowledge of who he is. Open our eyes and open our ears so that we can hear what the spirit of the Lord says.  

We thank you for this gift and we thank you, Lord, for his leaning, his counsel, his wisdom. I pray, Lord that as we have made an appointment with you for Pentecost Sunday, June 8th.  

Between now and then may you continue to grow us in wisdom so that we know how to interact with him and how to hear him clearly and how to give him his space. Thank you for all that he brings from the gifts of the Holy Spirit to the fruit.  

Father I pray for all of us that in our efforts to serve you, may we find ourselves doing well because of the leading of the Holy Spirit. We thank you for the promise that you will never leave us, nor forsake us.  

So remind anyone of us when we feel alone and we feel like he has abandoned us. That the promise still stands today, now and forevermore. I pray, Lord, that may we be able to teach. Please gift to our children, nieces, nephews and those who we come to contact with.  

So that their experience in the journey of salvation is enhanced in the name of Jesus. We thank you for the proclamation of the day of the Lord, where grace is an abundance. Where deliver and salvation is a gift to humanity.  

So as we continue on this journey of salvation. Lord, I pray for blessings upon all of us. That may we continue to receive the gifts and the fruits of the spirit that he brings with him. So that our interaction with others is enhanced and fruitful.  

May those who come in contact with us, eat from the fruit of the Holy Spirit that is overflowing through us. May our bellies flow rivers of living waters. That others can drink from. Father continue to direct our path.  

We know our efforts have no meaning if your presence is not there. So continue to order our steps to direct us in the way that we should go. We thank you for this relationship that we have with the Holy Spirit. We Lord that we continue to grow. 

May it continued to be fruitful so that we follow the path of the righteous. I pray for clean hearts, clean minds, clean thoughts, clean hands. Bless our eyes to see things that we have never seen before and bless our ears to hear things that we have never heard before for your word tells us that the mysteries of this Kingdom belongs to us.  

So, Lord, as we go through this day guide us in all things true. Bless us in our interactions with others. May we be the answer to somebody's prayer today. May we be the miracle that somebody is waiting for.  And of course, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit anoint us to preach this good news, anoint to teach anoint us to instruct.  

So that the words that we speak are piercing through the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now as we start this week elicits through and through. And as we go through this day, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one for thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever, Amen.  

Brothers and sisters let us continue growing in the knowledge of the Holy Spirit and let us continue being attentive to his voice. Because it is the spirit that has been given to us to guide us through our journey of salvation until we meet the Father. May the Lord bless you and may the Lord equip you. We'll see you tomorrow.