Why Morning Prayer Will Change Your Life
Morning prayer will change your life! Jesus prayed early in the morning, and if you install this one practice, it will completely change your experience as a Christian. In this blog, I want to share how you can access higher levels of authority, influence, and power in the Kingdom. Then, I’m going to share four very practical and very easy ways that you can install this discipline in your life.
Mark 1:35, ESVVery early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.
Very Early
On record, the disciples only ever asked Jesus how to do one thing: pray. I believe it's because they would have watched what Jesus was doing as described in Mark 1:35. They probably saw him going away not just early, but “very early” in the morning. If you haven’t experienced a breakthrough, this could be why you’re not going to the next level.
1400 New Neurons
When you wake up in the morning after having a full night’s sleep, you experience something that science calls neurogenesis. That means that you wake up with 1,400 new neurons every single day. Scientists first noticed this in the 1960s, but the idea that the adult brain could produce new neurons was so controversial that it wasn't accepted until decades later.
Create A New Brain
So what does this have to do with morning prayer? Lamentations 3:22-23 says, “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (ESV). You wake up with over a thousand new neurons every single morning. Scripture says that God makes His mercies new every day. That means it’s a new opportunity for a new mind and a new thought life. It's an opportunity to create a new brain. These 1,400 new neurons have the potential to become anything. Think of them as 1,400 soldiers you can either train in the army of God, or train to be lustful, perverted, jealous, envious, or full of worry and anxiety. If you wake up in the morning and the first thing you do is grab your phone and start scrolling, you are training them to be jealous, envious, and/or lustful. God makes His mercies new every single day by giving you new neurons. You have to choose what you do with them. Jesus, who was God but also in a human body, had to take those new neurons and say, “I'm going to get away in the early morning in prayer. I'm going to submit and surrender these new neurons to the kingdom. I am going to renew my mind.”
You Are A Morning Person
I am a morning person. People who are not morning people can be annoyed by that. Well, guess what - you’re a morning person too in someone else’s time zone (ha!). You can discipline yourself to become a person who prays in the morning. It’s a matter of choice. So as you begin to rewire your brain and your biology for this discipline, you will begin to experience some tremendous benefits. I believe that this could lead to the breakthrough that you've needed. In my own experience, when I wake up, the chaos of the day and the noise of the world around me begin to quickly cause a low level of anxiety and apprehension. When I set aside time to pray first thing in the morning, God speaks to me and gives me prophetic wisdom and insights into situations before I even encounter them. The Lord will speak and reveal things before they happen, but you have to wake up and pray before they happen.
Sacrifice The First And Best
It's a sacrifice to wake up early. I would love to sleep in longer, but instead, I wake up and make that sacrifice because God always honors sacrifice. I believe that it's one of the ways I can show Him that I’m putting Him first. In the Bible, we see that God only accepted sacrifices that represented giving what was first and best. You are not allowed to give God leftovers. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten son.” Jesus is referred to as the firstborn of all creation. So God gave Jesus, which was His first and his best, and then when Jesus was on this Earth he woke up early and gave His first and best to God in prayer. Then from that place, signs, miracles, wonders, healings, and financial provision were all there for Jesus. But Jesus gave His first and his best.
Three Tips To Implement Early Morning Prayer
Here are three practical tips for installing this discipline in your life that you can implement starting tomorrow morning.
1. Don’t delay.
Set your alarm and wake up the first time it goes off. If you hit the snooze button, you're programming your brain to delay. Put your alarm far enough away so that you physically have to get out of your bed to turn it off. Maybe you are asking God, “God, why are you delaying answering my prayers?” Don’t delay meeting with him in the morning and see if your breakthrough comes.
2. Find the right spot to pray.
It’s helpful if you can find a spot with natural sunlight. As the sun comes up, you’ll be doing what is best for your biological, emotional, and spiritual well-being. I have a back porch area here in New York City where I can go out and pray year-round, even when it’s cold. It refreshes me, physically and spiritually. Sometimes your spot might be somewhere secluded or a private place out of necessity. I grew up as the oldest of five kids in a noisy, crazy house where everybody was up early to get ready for school. I would pray in the bathroom, in the shower. That was my spot, and it worked for me in that season. Don’t pick a place that will lull you back to sleep. It needs to be a place that is comfortable, but isn’t so comfortable that it becomes a form of distraction.
3. Remove all distractions.
It’s very tempting first thing in the morning to grab my phone and see who emailed me, who commented on my latest post, or who subscribed to my YouTube channel since yesterday. I tend to use my phone for ambient music during my prayer time, so I'll put on spontaneous worship. I have my phone there, but I teach myself that the primary usage of my phone during this time is to play worship that I can pray to, not to get caught up in all of those distractions. So if you're going to have a phone or other things that could cause distraction around, discipline yourself to use them for another purpose that contributes to your time of prayer. Try making morning prayer a priority like Jesus did. Give God the sacrifice of the first and best part of your day. Don’t delay getting to it by hitting your snooze button, find the right spot, and remove all distractions. In my early morning prayer, I've had visitations by God through the Holy Spirit. I've received prophetic words and even received warnings about things that are going to happen throughout the day. God has been so faithful to meet me in that time. I believe that Jesus woke up early to pray to model for us how we should live our Christian life. Don't forsake early morning prayer. Let God meet you there and see how your life transforms.
Further Resources
📖 Why Can't I Hear God📖 How to Host the Holy Spirit
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