Kingdom Vision Ignited

11038565_990307551032352_7142033643437499984_n“A city that becomes a ‘crown of glory’ is a city that is consecrated or set apart to the Lord for His purposes, a city with an uncompromised church that is reflecting God’s glory. It’s a city where the church is victorious, the house of the Lord is established, and His presence is tangible in their midst, offering the protection of His presence. It’s a city where the priests are watching and guarding the city and contending for God’s presence, a place where the lost can look at the church and see Jesus and His power at work in life-changing ways.”

Without question, cities begin to change through 24/7 prayer. When we pray in unity day and night, we begin to get a kingdom vision because we start to see everything from God’s perspective. Things that are not essential began to fade into the distance. Our vision begins to sharpen as we see the city in a new way through eyes of faith.

Let’s begin by thinking about what it really means to have a kingdom vision and perspective. We pray about it in the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:10, “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”, but what does this actually mean to us?

Did you realize that the central message of Jesus and the apostles was concerning the Kingdom of God?

Think about this amazing fact. Jesus is the King of kings, and He will one day rule every sphere of society worldwide! The Kingdom is already here in a limited way but it will be fully here when Jesus returns. The centerpiece of God’s eternal purpose is for Jesus to come back to earth to establish His Kingdom rule on earth and join the heavenly and earthly realms (Ephesians 1:9-10). He will rule nations on earth during the 1000-year, Millennium Kingdom where there will be a global blessing of righteousness (Revelation 20:4-6). This will be 1000 years of peace, righteousness, prosperity and blessing throughout the earth.

I lived on a ship as a missionary. This was for over ten years with over 300 people, mainly young, from about 40 different nations. We sailed from country to country spreading the good news about Jesus. One of the songs we liked to sing in those early days was about Habakkuk 2:14:

“The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”

I used to like to go out on deck and look at the ocean during many of our calm or sometimes rough voyages. If you’ve never been on a ship, you must try it. Often from east to west and north to south you couldn’t see anything but blue-green sea. There were no ships or land anywhere as far as your eyes could see. The sea was massive – it was impressive – it gave me a picture of how one day the whole earth would see the glory of God and would know about Him!

The heavenly and earthly dimensions will one day come together and fully express the glory of God.

You and I have the privilege to proclaim in our prayers – and through our lives – that Jesus is King and is coming to earth to establish His worldwide Kingdom. We can bring heaven to earth through our prayers. We can proclaim the knowledge of God and spread this Kingdom message with power everywhere we go (1 Corinthians 4:20). He wants us to walk in His authority and power even as we wait for His Kingdom to come in all its fullness (Acts 1:8). He is reconciling all things to Himself (Colossians 1:19-20). All the earth will be filled with His glory (Numbers 14:21, Psalm 72:19, Isaiah 6:3). Our lives should be filled with the knowledge of God.

This must be our focus. 24/7 Houses of Prayer ignite a Kingdom vision and help us to live fully committed lives. As this happens, we shall experience supernatural boldness and authority.

Daniel prophesied of the Messianic Kingdom in Daniel 2 and 7. God’s Kingdom is any sphere of life where God rules over Satan. The Church is the community of the Kingdom, and we spread His Kingdom by living holy lives, praying for the sick, sharing our faith, etc. This is why it is important that we get a vision of the Kingdom of God for our church and the city we live in. Before Jesus returns, the Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached to the whole world (Matthew 24:14). And God will use us in this great task of making disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19). We must have vision to see God’s great perspective of the Kingdom. When we see this, we see how important day and night prayer really is.

To understand the end-time scenery, we must understand the book of Revelation. It is our prayer manual for the end-times. If we understand this book, we can live successful through the end time difficulties, and we can know how to pray strategically. We don’t have to be caught off guard like those pilots in Tenerife.

God will use the least severe judgments to reach the greatest amount of people at the deepest level of love. Jesus, our King, will judge everything that opposes love (Revelation 19:11-21). The measure that we develop love, meekness and holiness determines our place and function in His government.

Let’s realize that 24/7 Houses of Prayer will help us know how to live in this 70-year internship that prepares us for life in the age to come (Psalm 90:10). Let’s give God our all now! Let’s look at the future with positive optimism instead of in morbid discouragement. Jesus is King of all, and He has already won the battle at the cross.

A Vienna born psychologist, Viktor Frankl (1905-1997), rejected Freud’s emphasis on the past as being the primary force that forms us in the present. He was a survivor of several Nazi concentration camps. After the war he analyzed the holocaust survivors and categorized them in two categories: Those who were emotionally stable and those who weren’t. The predominant factor was not their experience before or doing the concentration camps. It was what they believed about their future!

Our hope and what we believe about the future matters greatly. We need to see it from God’s perspective and with the hopeful anticipation of Christ’s rule here in earth.

By Debbie Przybylski
Intercessors Arise International
IHOPKC

A City with a Kingdom Vision

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“God’s kingdom, when it comes, probably won’t arrive in the way we expect or even want it to. But viewing history with the eyes of faith, through the grid of past prayer movements, we can easily see the correlation between seasons of intercession and the extension of God’s kingdom in the world.”

What will your city look like when it has a Kingdom vision and focus? How will it be different than it is right now? Notice the abundant prosperity that God brings to the city in Jeremiah 33:9:

“Then this city will bring me renown, joy, praise and honor before all nations on earth that hear of all the good things I do for it; and they will be in awe and will tremble at the abundant prosperity and peace I provide for it.”

When the believers in a city have a kingdom vision and begin to pray together with eyes of faith, several dramatic changes take place:

  • Trust – A new level of trust is developed between believers of different backgrounds. Suspicion is gone. There is the realization that we need one another to reach our city.
  • The wisdom of God – The Christians begin seeking heaven’s perspective for their city and heaven’s agenda. They begin seeking the mind of Christ and the wisdom of God for their city.
  • Relational unity – The city church begins to want deeper fellowship with other churches. This unity is much deeper than a unity based on an event. It is true friendship.
  • Transformation – The believers seek for God to transform their city and revive the city church. They then bring the revival fire into the streets and community. The church begins to influence the city.
  • Lovers and worshippers of God – The church becomes a lover of God instead of just a worker for God. They learn to worship God out of intimate fellowship. This pushes out the powers of darkness.
  • Kingdom building – There is a willingness to lay down personal agendas and work towards building God’s purposes. The church begins to see the big picture of what God wants to do in the city.
  • Presence of God – There begins to be more emphasis upon waiting on God. The presence of God replaces man-made fleshly ideas, programs, and methods.
  • Learners of simplicity – The church learns the power and wisdom of simplicity. The way God works is not through a highly intellectual, organized, and complicated program. He works through simplicity.

This is what we must prayer towards. When we had our first one-month 24/7 House of Prayer in southern Spain in 2006, we only started to taste what God wanted for the city. The taste made us desperately hungry for more. It was life changing, and I don’t think any of us could say that we want to go back to the old way. We had just begun to taste what God wanted for the Campo de Gibraltar area. A Kingdom vision was born. But there is so much more.

God is giving incredible grace for prayer at this hour. This vision is spreading far and wide, and we will soon be captured in a movement of prayer and a hunger for His presence that is unstoppable. All over the world there is beginning to be a desperate cry for fervent prayer. Let’s discover how to prepare the way for God’s presence and Kingdom by learning to pray together with churches in our area for extended period of time.

Pray through the above list over and over again for your city. See with eyes of faith what God wants to do. Cry out for Him to ignite a Kingdom vision in your city. The hour calls for it. Your city desperately needs God’s presence. His vision is life changing!

“Without a vision, people are doomed to live mediocre lives, carried along by social influences and self-centered interests. The Bible says, ‘Where there is no vision, the people perish’ (Proverbs 28:18 KJV). Our own vision for our lives cannot sustain us; we must have a vision that originates from the heart of God, from His very throne room. His vision is life-giving, life-changing, and worth abandoning our hearts and lives to.”

By Debbie Przybylski
Intercessors Arise International
IHOPKC

Eye Surgery for a Kingdom Focus

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My husband and I went for a free vision exam. The advertisement made a lot of amazing claims just as they so often do. It said the doctors were skilled with extensive experience in advanced diagnostic equipment, the procedure rooms were specially designed for optimal results, the technology used was the best with complete follow-up care and affordable prices! We had thought we were going for a normal eye exam only to discover that the doctor was examining us for laser surgery. Because of the fancy advertisement, the place was packed with people wanting to improve their vision through free laser surgery.

While we were waiting, I noticed a group of patients gathered around a big window intently watching something very interesting in the next room. I walked over and to my surprise, they were watching a live laser surgery being done on one of the patients! It took only about ten minutes to complete this surgery that provided a vast improvement of one’s vision, even with those who had been wearing bifocal glasses for years and years.

I was fascinated as I watched the doctor wash the eye with a solution and know exactly how to do what seemed like a simple surgery on the eye. I am sure it was much more complex than I imagined. Then he would wash the eye again, and I would see magnified a beautifully colored and designed eye so unique and carefully created by God. It was an amazing surgery that impressed me greatly.

God is doing eye surgery right now on the body of Christ. He wants us to see with His vision. He is a skilled physician with the very best equipment, and He has the greatest experience of anyone in the entire world! His technology is supernatural, and He provides daily follow-up and personal care. God wants to remove our shortsightedness and the cataracts that fog our vision. He wants us to see through eyes of faith what He can do in our cities and nations. He wants to put his own eye salve on our eyes so we can see brilliantly what is before us and how we are to pray.

While on a prayer journey in the Biblical city of Laodicea in Turkey, I was reminded of God’s message to the Laodicean church. God wants us to be willing to go through His refinement so that we are not lukewarm and naked like the Laodicean church but, instead, are on fire for Him. He says to the church in Laodicea in Revelation 3:18:

“I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful naked-ness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.”

I didn’t qualify for lazer surgery, but I am glad that I do qualify for God’s surgery that opens my eyes further to see from His glorious perspective! You qualify as well. I encourage you to begin to see your city from God’s Kingdom perspective. Think about starting 24/7 in your city for a week or a month. Think about the Kingdom of God invading your city.

We sometimes do one-month Houses of Prayer. When we do this in cities for a month, it changes so many of our lives! Time in God’s presence changes you dramatically just as it did Michael’s family. Perhaps you are thinking:

“But you don’t know my nation – the church is too small or too divided!”

God doesn’t need a large population of Christians in order to bring in His presence. He will work through a few churches that decide to unite in prayer in order to seek His presence for their city. This is where He loves to show His presence. When we had a one-month House of Prayer in Spain, we had only 12-15 committed churches.

By Debbie Przybylski
Intercessors Arise International
IHOPKC