Tag Archives: loving God

Transformed Hearts

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10399447_964513906945050_1606014413027492981_n-2“Cultivating a responsive heart of extravagant devotion to Jesus takes time and deliberate effort. Love does not grow automatically but rather it automatically diminishes unless intentionally cultivated. A responsive heart to God, renewed in freshness and tenderness, is precious and rare, to be guarded with great care and renewed day by day. Satan’s first priority against the Church is to lead us astray from cultivating the ability to be responsive to God with wholehearted love and extravagant devotion. If Satan leads us astray from the purity of devotion to Jesus, then our service and love for others will eventually fail.” Dana Candler

As you  move forward in prayer for your city, realize that it’s all about loving God and preparing the earth for the reign of Jesus, our Bridegroom King. It’s all about obeying the first commandment:

“Love the Lord your God with ALL your heart, with ALL your soul, and with ALL your mind” (Matthew 22:37-38).

The fire of loving God will ignite our faith to live a life of prayer and devotion. He wants us to turn to Him with all our heart (Joel 2:12). Then He will pour out His Spirit on the nations.

God wants to transform our hearts in the prayer room. There is no better way to experience a changed heart as in the prayer room. He wants to impact our hearts so that we impact our cities and the nations. If we love God, we will love others better and with a much greater consistency. Let’s remember that the Church of Ephesus had left their first love (Revelation 2:1-5). Their once fiery love and passion for Jesus had grown cold. Their minds had been led astray from the simplicity of pure devotion to Christ (2 Corinthians 11:3). Loving God and living a holy life must be our primary focus.

As we think about loving God and Jesus, let’s realize that Houses of Prayer will enable us to grow in intimacy in a way that is beyond our greatest dream.

Houses of Prayer help us to encounter God on a deep level. Growing in an intimate relationship with God should be our ambition, our highest calling. This means that we know and are deeply known by God. We have a relational knowledge of Him and not just a factual understanding. God is a person to be known, and our knowledge of Him produces affection.

We position our hearts in the prayer room to receive the love He desires to manifest to us. He wants to partner with us, and He releases blessing to those who are in unity with His heart. Loving God was Jesus’ last public invitation and declaration before He went to the cross (Matthew 22:37-38). It is the great commandment and God’s first priority. We impact His heart when we love Him. This should be our life focus (Song of Solomon 8:6-7).

Loving God in the prayer room brings transformation into our heart.

By Debbie Przybylski
Intercessors Arise International
IHOPKC

Ways to Adore God in the Prayer Room

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Our Prayers for Wisdom in Developing a House of Prayer“Your statutes, LORD, stand firm; holiness adorns your house for endless days” (Psalm 93:5).

It’s time to learn how to love and adore God in the prayer room both personally and corporately. Let’s get ready for the harvest. Here’s some ways we can do this:

  • Express your love and longings for God as a group – Have extra times of worship without asking for anything but just praising God.
  • Delight in Jesus Himself – Don’t just worship God for what He has done for you, but delight in Jesus Himself and Who He is.
  • Learn to be unselfish in your prayers – Don’t always be me-centered but learn to be God-centered.
  • Pray the attributes of God and Jesus – In your prayers say: “You are holy,” “You are righteous,” “You are good, forgiving, loving, merciful, etc.”
  • Pray the names and descriptions of God and Jesus – Worship God as: “Wonderful Counselor,” “Prince of Peace,” “Savior,” “King of Kings,” Pray verses that go along with each name or description such as Isaiah 9:6: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

As the days grow darker may we be consumed with the person of Jesus Christ. May our affections be stirred to the limits of their intensity, and may we respond with an unearthly delight and an unspeakable joy.

This is what happened to a woman who delighted to worship Jesus with all that she had. She knew how to sit at Jesus’ feet and seek one thing—Him alone. She was not caught up in the tyranny of the urgent as many of us are today. She knew what was essential. She was determined and single-minded. She beheld the beauty of the Lord (Psalm 27:4). She went beyond the call of duty in her devotion.

It was extravagant—it was powerful—it was a consuming reality.

In Matthew 26:6-13, we read about this woman who took an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume and poured it on Jesus’ head as he was reclining at the table. This woman crossed the line of social and religious propriety when she entered a roomful of men.

But nothing could stop her from pouring on Jesus’ head a jar of very expensive perfume worth a year’s wages. We read in verses 8-9: “When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. ‘Why this waste?’ they asked. ‘This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.’” But Jesus defended this woman when He said to those present, “She has done a beautiful thing to me.” The word “beautiful” means noble, fine, and elegant. It pleased God. I am sure it excited His heart.

Adoration means extravagant passion. This woman knew what really mattered. Everything else springs from this. She teaches us the most important lesson—to love God extravagantly. Let’s learn from her example. Let’s learn to continually love God in the prayer room and to take that adoration and love everywhere we go.

“Whether we think of, or speak to God, whether we act or suffer for Him, all is prayer, when we have no other object than His love and the desire of pleasing Him. All that a Christian does, even in eating and sleeping, is prayer when it is done in simplicity according to the order of God… In souls filled with love, the desire to please God is a continual prayer.” John Wesley

By Debbie Przybylski
Intercessors Arise International
IHOPKC

The Heart of David

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11214163_990325321030575_6399602475697441857_nKing David was a  Bible character that adored God. He was one who sought God’s face continually. He was a man after God’s own heart
(1 Samuel 13:14) and a student of God’s emotions, who continually worshipped Him all His life. He committed himself to obeying the commands of God.

David’s primary occupation was to seek God’s beauty (Psalm 27:4). He knew the love of God in good times and bad. God was with David when he adored Him out in the fields as a shepherd boy. And God was with him as he adored Him while ruling as King. Even while being pursued by Saul, while hiding in damp dark caves, David experienced the love and strength of God. David, as shepherd and king, knew how to pray and strengthened himself in God (1Samuel 30:8).

The highest and chief goal in David’s life was to know God.

He dedicated his life to finding a resting place for God on earth
(Psalm 133:1-8). He sought the Lord with his time, talents, and treasures. He spent time in God’s House fasting and worshiping Him continually. He prioritized seeking God even as a military leader. He prioritized seeking God as a shepherd when nobody was watching. When he was young and when he was old, he sought after God. Whether he was in victory or in depression, David set His heart on God’s beauty.

After becoming King, David set up a worship tabernacle in Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6). He had a revelation of worship according to God’s order in his heavenly sanctuary. He then prepared a place for the Ark of God and set it in the Tabernacle of David (1 Chronicles 15-16:1). He established Levites to worship before the Ark. During David’s lifetime, he raised up four thousand paid musicians and 288 paid singers to worship in God’s house (1 Chronicles 23:5; 25:7).

God has promised to restore David’s Tabernacle in the future. This speaks of Jesus’ Millennial government over all nations based on 24/7 Davidic worship and intercession (Amos 9:11). Now is the time when God’s end-time Church will have a vision to restore worship and prayer as David commanded, and will rise up to do this all across the earth. Adoring God was David’s main ambition. He was on a lifelong treasure hunt to discover the beauty of the Lord.

God wants to pour out His love within our hearts as well. He wants us to love Him wholeheartedly as David did. If this is not the case, we are out of alignment with what we were created for. This can bring great emotional fatigue and feelings of hopelessness. God wants to fill us with hope that nothing can destroy in all the situations we face in life. Read 1 John 2:5; 4:12; and 17-18. Romans 5:2b, 5 says:

“And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God… And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”

  • Is the secret of our life loving and adoring God?
  • Are we a people after one thing—God Himself and His glory?
  • Is knowing God intimately the preoccupation of our life and our highest ambition?

We need to tap into our power source. We need to find our identity in intimacy with Christ. Refreshment in God’s love helps us to stand firm. Mike Bickle prays the following:

“Father, I ask to be supernaturally empowered to give a witness of the glory of the Man, Christ Jesus and of His delivering power from all the oppressions of Satan so that many unredeemed people might be made whole and then passionately filled with our perfected love for your beloved Son and His dear church.”

By Debbie Przybylski
Intercessors Arise International
IHOP-KC