Tag Archives: fruitfulness

Enjoyable Prayer Leads to Abundant Fruit

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11390094_968828946513546_3817218908514737680_n-2“Isaiah also prophesied of a totally new paradigm of prayer characterized by ‘joy’. The Lord promised, ‘I will make you joyful in My house of prayer’ (Isaiah 56:7). The Church will be surprised by joy. In other words, God will fill the Church with enjoyable prayer that is ‘refreshing and invigorating’. Imagine the implications of a paradigm of ‘enjoyable prayer’. The climate within the body of Christ would be different because of deep partnership in prayer with the Eternal Intercessor who is our Bridegroom God. If God is not enjoyable, it will not happen 24 hours a day. Historically, prayer has been hard and thus greatly neglected, but new days of refreshing prayer are breaking forth even now.” Mike Bickle

If we are to bring in the great harvest at the end of this age, we must know the secret of enjoyable prayer. We saw that as we are involved in the combination of prayer and worship, our hearts are stirred towards the things that stir God’s heart. How can we get away from the reality of the world situation? We can’t. We will enter into the heart of God, and we will find great joy not only in prayer, but also in reaching out to the world around us. The angels rejoice in the salvation of the lost; we will do likewise. When we partner with God in reaching the poor and needy and in sharing the Good News, we will find exceeding joy. Luke emphasizes the great joy among the angels when one sinner repents. He wrote in chapter 15:10:

“In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

The “harp and bowl” prayer room will help us to abide in Christ. This brings us into enjoyable prayer because it combines prayer and worship. When we combine prayer with singing and worshipping God, our heart begins to soar. The most significant passages related to enjoyable prayer outlines the beauty of God in context to the heavenly worship around the Throne in Revelation 4-5. We begin to encounter God’s emotions and affections. Some think seeking God in prayer is boring and frustrating. No! God is releasing enjoyable prayer to His people (Isaiah 56:7).

I look eagerly forward to praying in the International House of Prayer. It is the best part of my day, and I thoroughly enjoy it!

I have been watching a tiny apple tree in our back yard. It’s only a couple of years old, and it didn’t look like anything would come forth from this tree. It seemed to just sit there, looking absolutely lifeless with nothing to show for itself on the surface, but actually it was digging its roots deep down into the earth. Then, all of a sudden this year it is growing apples! It is bringing forth fruit. This is definitely a miracle from God because to the naked eye it looked like it wouldn’t ever produce anything.

God wants us to live in Him with our root system deep into the ground, unshakable by what is happening in the world. He has chosen and appointed us to bear lasting fruit, but before we can bear good fruit, we need to have our roots deep in God—in who He is and who we are in Him. The fruit can only be sustained by the life the roots give. If the roots aren’t deep, the weight of the fruit might be too much to bear. We read in John 15:16-17 in the Amplified Bible:

“You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and I have appointed you [I have planted you], that you might go and bear fruit and keep on bearing, and that your fruit may be lasting [that it may remain, abide], so that whatever you ask the Father in My Name [as presenting all that I AM], he may give it to you.”

Day and night prayer will keep us stable where nothing will be able to unearth us or cause us to fall, but there’s one important requirement. We have to be vitally united to the source. God’s Word has to continually be living in our heart. As we pray and abide in Christ in the prayer room, we will begin to bring forth abundant fruit outside the prayer room where the need is great. In John’s Gospel, he emphasizes abundant fruit when we are linked intimately to the vine:

“Dwell in Me and I will dwell in you. [Live in me and I will live in you]. Just as no branch can bear fruit of itself without abiding in (being vitally united to) the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you abide in Me. I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing… If you live in Me [abide vitally united to Me] and My words remain in you and continue to live in your hearts, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you. When you bear (produce) much fruit, My father is honored and glorified, and you show and prove yourselves to be true followers of Mine. I have loved you [just] as the Father has loved Me; abide in My love [continue in His love with Me]. If you keep My commandments [if you continue to obey My instructions], you will abide in My love and live on in it, just as I have obeyed My Father’s commandments and live on in His love” (John 15:4-5, 7-10, Amplified).

By Debbie Przybylski
Intercessors Arise International
IHOPKC

An Awakened Heart

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11260948_967242630005511_931634998081476917_nFor those who have kept intimacy with God as their primary assignment, fruitfulness will flow. We bring God with us to a lost and dying world. He energizes us with His life as we go forth, and we realize that time spent with Jesus has empowered us. It is worth it to seek the Lord’s face. As we go forth from the prayer room, let’s pray this prayer found in Tom Tenney’s book called The God Chasers:

“Father, we confess that we want to see change in our lives and in our church so that we can bring about change in our city. Give us such a heart and passion after You that we may begin to see your glory flow out of us to convict and save the lost. Release your presence through us as You did through Charles Finney when he walked through factories and saw workers drop to their knees under Your glory and cried out for forgiveness although not one word had been spoken or preached. May the faintest shadow of Your presence in our lives heal the sick and restore the lame we meet in the streets. Let Your presence so saturate us that unsaved guests can’t step into our homes or be around us with unrepentant hearts. May Your glory bring conviction in their lives that lead to salvation—not because of the words we say but because of Your presence and power in our hearts.”

God is awakening our hearts in the prayer room. That’s why it’s good to have your prayer room outward-looking. Maps, globes, news about missionaries, and many other things can give it an outward focus.

We’ve had one-week Houses of Prayer where unsaved friends and family’s names were taped up on one wall and the local pastors names on another wall. We had evenings in our prayer room where we focused on praying for the sick. In all these demonstrations of loving prayer we are showing earth that our God reigns supreme. We are bringing the reality of heaven to earth.

“The wake up call is now being sounded for the greatest force for truth and righteousness that has yet been released on the earth. It is now time to show the earth that heaven exists. All that we know on earth is but a shadow of the reality that is in heaven. We are called to bring reality to earth so that men will seek God.” Rick Joyner

By Debbie Przybylski
Intercessors Arise International
IHOPKC

The Incredible Power of United Intercession

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11742733_990271787702595_3668284289852266212_n
“How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity! It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron’s beard, down upon the collar of his robes. It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion. For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore”
(Psalm 133:1-3).

Intercession is spreading just as the urgency of the hour for prayer is increasing. God is moving across the earth, and the prayer movement is growing as the days grow darker. We are in an enormous battle just as the Romans were in the movie Gladiator. We must unite in prayer; the life of the Church depends on it.

During a time of traveling for several months overseas, I was able to visit several countries and was amazed at the rapid interest there was for Houses of Prayer. There were young people in France who desire to spread 24/7 prayer all throughout that land. And this was in just one nation. There are so many others!

There is no other way that we will be able to reach the nations and see revival and salvation spread. There must be a dramatic increase in united prayer. While praying overseas with many different Christians of various denominations and from many nations, I was struck with the realization of the incredible power of united intercession. This is why the enemy hates it so much. This is why starting and maintaining a House of Prayer takes all our determination and commitment.

You have heard of the saying, “United we stand, divided we fall.”

During World War II in the battle for Salingrad, the soldiers were ordered by their Russian commanders not to give up any more ground. If a soldier fled from the Germans, he was instantly shot on the spot. The Russian commanders knew the seriousness of uniting together. If a couple of soldiers fled their posts, the Germans would have an opening and would be able to invade the city. The Church must stand together in unity. When we are divided, Satan finds it easier to attack us and conquer. United day and night prayer within our cities will protect us from enemy attack.

Psalm 133 speaks of the blessing of unity. This blessing includes the Holy Spirit’s presence and power. When we unite in prayer, we will see a great increase in the realm of God’s manifest power. With unified and anointed prayer, we shall see divine possibilities in our cities and nations that we had never before imagined possible. The fullness of God is only released to the unified Church. We must pay the price to see this happen. We must face and endure the difficulties of uniting in intercession in order to see the blessings of the Lord flow. We read in Ephesians 4:3:

“Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”

One hundred pianos that are all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other. They are in one accord not because they are being tuned to one another, but to another standard outside of themselves. Each one must become tuned to that one standard in order to be in tune with the others. When we worship and pray together, we are looking to Christ. He is our standard. In this way we become like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.

A few years ago we were planning a one-month 24/7 House of Prayer in our city of Virginia Beach. I was signing individuals up for the two-hour time slots in the prayer room. Being unsure as to the various combinations of people that would end up in the prayer room together, I stepped forward by faith hoping that God would arrange it in a perfect design. To my surprise, God worked it out to the smallest detail.

During that month an elderly woman intercessor had signed up for the very same hours as a young African American pastor with a group of his lively and somewhat rugged-looking church members. So here they were in the prayer room praying and seeking God together.

I thought to myself, “Will it work?”

To my amazement, after it was all over, the elderly intercessor came up to me and told me how much she had enjoyed praying together with that pastor and his church team. She expressed with sadness how she was going to really miss praying with them.

Such is the beauty of how God unites in heart very diverse individuals in the prayer room.

Jesus prayed for unity in His Church in His high priestly prayer in John 17 shortly before He died. In John 17:1-19 He prays directly for His disciples, but in the last six verses He prays for His Church throughout all of history. He prays that we would be united with Him (John 17:21, 23). He wants us to live in unity with His heart, doing and saying what He says. He prays that we would know His glory and beauty and that our love would be pure and undefiled; that we would passionately love just as He does. He wants us to love Him just like He loves the Father (John 17:26). We want this tremendous portion of Scripture to dramatically change our lives. We should pray these Scriptures in the prayer room because unity is so important in our cities.

Unity is a key to fruitfulness. This is true in all dimensions of life, especially in the prayer room. We need to do everything we can do to help maintain unity, love, and peace with one another. We are glorifying God in our prayers and worship. Valuing and prioritizing unity will help bring the manifest presence of God into the prayer room. We need to ask ourselves:

How can we maintain unity in our House of Prayer? How can we stay united in powerful intercession on a daily basis?

Colossians 3:12-14 emphasizes the character qualities that we must cloth ourselves with in order to build perfect harmony:

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”

By Debbie Przybylski
Intercessors Arise International
IHOPKC