“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 uncompro-mised 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.” Rhonda Hughey

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 begin to fade into the distance. Our vision begins to sharpen as we see the city in a new way through eyes of faith.

What does 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 know that the central message of Jesus and the apostles concerned the Kingdom of God?

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 thousand-year Millennium Kingdom, and there will be a global blessing of righteousness (Revelation 20:4-6). This will be a thousand years of peace, righteousness, prosperity, and blessing throughout the earth. It will be wonderful.

I lived on a ship. This was for over ten years with over three hundred people, mainly young, from about forty 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 based on Habakkuk 2:14:

“For the earth will 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. 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 scene, 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 difficulties, and we can know how to pray strategically. We don’t have to be caught off guard. We don’t have to fear the tribulation. 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 Houses of Prayer will help us know how to live in this present seventy-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 morbid discourage-ment. 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 that the past is 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 on earth.

By Debbie Przybylski
Intercessors Arise International
IHOPKC