Tag Archives: prayer

Our Prayer for Wisdom in Developing a House of Prayer

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12065528_1035112536551853_5307152816253278059_nLord, we pray for a Spirit of wisdom and revelation that we may know You better. Open the eyes of our hearts and enlighten us to know the hope to which You have called us (Ephesians 1:17-19a). Help us to start a House of Prayer in our city, and increase prayer in our churches. Give us dynamic prayer lives. We ask for you to give us practical wisdom when we pray with others. Give us Your creativity and a faithful team. Raise up dedicated intercessors and worshippers, and help us to plan carefully. Show us how to train and motivate people to pray.

Help us to be considerate of others in the prayer room, and teach us to love the diversity of your Church. Help us to be open to all types of prayers. Teach us to enjoy times of silence and times of music, times of intercession and times of thanksgiving, times of meditation and times of reading and praying Your Word. “Show me your ways, LORD, teach me your paths. Guide me in Your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in You all day long” (Psalm 25:4-5). “Send me your light and your faithful care, let them lead me;
 let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell. Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight. I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God” (Psalm 43:3-4). [Use “us”, “we”, and “our” in prayer instead of “me”, “I”, and “my”.]

Lord, encourage our hearts and unite us in love, so that we may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that we may know the mystery of You, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:2-3). Release the wisdom of Your Spirit in our lives and in our city. Teach us how to pray in the prayer room both corporately and individually. Reveal Your will for our lives and Your love for us. Let your light enter our hearts, let Your Word grip our minds (Psalm 119:18, 105, 130; Colossians 3:1-3), and help us to make quality decisions to walk in righteousness (Psalm 24:3-6, 119:11, 32). We give you all the glory and praise. We thank You for the wisdom You will give us as we begin. In Jesus’ name, amen.

By Debbie Przybylski
Intercessors Arise International
IHOPKC

Developing a Dynamic Prayer Life in the Prayer Room

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22793_968829669846807_2236742335163857583_n“To the average Christian the command “pray without ceasing” is simply a needless and impossible life of perfection. Who can do it? We can get to heaven without it. To the true believer, on the contrary, it holds out the promise of the highest happiness, of a life crowned by all the blessings that can be brought down on souls through his intercession. And as he perseveres, it becomes increasingly his highest aim upon earth, his highest joy, his highest experience of the wonderful fellowship with the holy God.” Mike Bickle

Did you know that God passionately desires that we partner with Him in prayer?

We have a dynamic role in determining the measure of the quality of our life, because God opens doors of blessing when we pray. But we have to rise up in prayer and partner with Him or we will not see these blessings. It is wise to develop a dynamic prayer life. God seeks for those who will stand in the gap and pray (Ezekiel 22:30). The prayer room is an excellent place to develop a dynamic prayer life both personally and corporately. I have seen it happen many times. Individuals seem to leap forward in prayer in an incredible way when they catch the vision of 24/7 prayer.

Why does God love our prayers?

It seems to be a mystery, doesn’t it? Prayer and intercession draws us into intimacy and at the same time, humbles and transforms us. When we bring our needs to God in prayer, we interact with God’s heart. He loves when we verbalize our prayers. He wants us to ask
in order to receive (James 4:2). He even withholds blessing if we do
not ask. God will answer and be gracious to us if we pray and ask
(Isaiah 30:18-19).

When we pray we are in governmental partnership with God, and we are changed on the inside as His Word abides in us. We are filled with His heart, and our effectiveness in prayer increases. We then decree His decrees with power from on high (Job 22:27-28). Wrong things are made right, the sick are healed, those bound in sin are freed, and revival is released in geographical areas.

God initiates prayer by declaring His will in His Word. We respond by praying His Word. Then He answers us by releasing His blessing because of our prayers. Our prayers are actually very powerful even during those days when we feel they are very weak. Prayer and intercession cause us to internalize God’s Word because when we speak His ideas back to Him, our minds are illuminated and our hearts are touched. His Words impart life (John 6:63). His Word builds us up and delivers us (1 Thessalonians 2:13; Hebrews 4:12; Acts 20:32; James 1:21). God’s mind then dominates and saturates ours, renewing us as we pursue Him in prayer.

I love to hear stories about Charles Finney because my husband comes from New York. Charles Finney was a lawyer from New York in the 1800’s whom the Lord used greatly to bring about revival. He soon quit his law practice and went into times of prayer and fasting. Over 100,000 were considered converted during his meetings with 80% continuing on with the Lord. That was a large number of people in those days.

What was the main secret of his spiritual success?

He had two faithful intercessors, Daniel Nash and Abel Clary, who believed in fervent prayer. They would go ahead of Finney to the cities where he was going to preach, and they would cry out to God and weep in prayer for those cities. Sometimes they would writhe and groan in agony over souls. God honored their prevailing prayers and sent revival.

These amazing results were because of prayer!  

In the parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18:1-8, Jesus exhorts us to cry night and day. We must learn to be steadfast in prayer with great endurance. Satan’s warfare against us is to undermine our faith by tempting us to lose heart and confidence in prayer. The Bible promises us that we will reap if we do not grow weary (Galatians 6:7-9).

If we look at Jesus’ disciples, their request was not to have a big ministry or great fame. They asked Him to teach them how to pray (Luke 11:1). They saw that everything that happened in Jesus’ ministry was because of His prayer life. Throughout the Bible we see that those who God used greatly were men and women of prayer. E. M. Bounds in his book, E. M. Bounds on Prayer, says:

“Christ, who in this as well as in other things is our example, spent many whole nights in prayer. His custom was to pray much. He had His habitual place to pray. Many long seasons of praying made up His history and character. Paul prayed day and night. Daniel’s three daily prayers took time away from other important interests. David’s morning, noon, and night praying was doubtless on many occasions very long and involved. While we have no specific account of the time these Bible saints spent in prayer, the indications are that they devoted much time to prayer, and on some occasions long seasons of praying were their custom. “

 By Debbie Przybylski
Intercessors Arise International
IHOPKC

Praying the Apostolic Prayers of Paul

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10984139_990271251035982_2689243787587295832_n“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).

There is a tremendous anointing when we pray and sing God’s Word. The Word of God is alive and active. It is sharp and it penetrates into our thoughts and hearts. We need God’s Word to be written on our hearts and flowing through our prayers.

The prayers of the Apostle Paul are some of the richest prayers in the Bible. They are always positive and directed toward God. He thoroughly understood the law, grace, the church, and holy living. Here at the International House of Prayer (IHOPKC) we pray the apostolic prayers everyday and throughout each day.

In the apostolic prayers, Paul focuses on gifts, fruits, and wisdom. He prays for the release of the ministry gifts of the Holy Spirit so that revival breaks out. He prays for the fruits of Godly character in the lives of those in the Church. He prays for wisdom in the Church in order that believers are able to search out the mysteries and knowledge of God, so that we may know Him better. He prays these prayers for the glory of God so that His Kingdom may come and His will be done in our churches, cities, and nations around the world.

We need divine encounters with God. We need our eyes enlightened. In his prayers, Paul reveals to us the power of intercession and the high focus we should have in prayer for the spirit of revelation. He prayed that the Church would come to a more full experience of the knowledge of God in active intimacy (Ephesians 1:17-19), as they walked out these spiritual blessings (Ephesians 1:3-14).

Paul wanted the Church to encounter God deeply. Notice what happens when we pray these apostolic prayers regularly:

  • Our hearts are supernaturally influenced by God – This helps us have a sustained lifestyle of pursuing God’s glory. We need the Spirit to do this, to enable our human capacity to receive more of God (1 Corinthians 2:12-14). We need to have our hearts fully alive.
  • We receive divine revelation to enlighten the eyes of our understanding – We begin to see God unveiled experientially in our understanding (John 17:3; Ephesians 1:18).
  • We receive confidence and hope in our individual calling from God – These divine assignments encompass all of time and eternity. We cannot walk firmly in our assignment in this age unless we are anchored in eternity (Ephesians 1:17-18; 2:10; Colossians 1:9-10).
  • We receive understanding of our spiritual identity – We discover the glory and wealth of being God’s inheritance. We understand that we are the focus of God’s affection (John 15:9; 17:23).
  • We are empowered to live our life in God (Ephesians 1:17-19) – He gives us His resurrection strength (Ephesians 1:20-21). We have the authority of Jesus as we resist sin and satanic opposition. All God’s power works through and for the good of His Church because all things are subject to Christ (Ephesians 1:20-21; Colossians 1:16; Philippians 2:6-11).

Praying these apostolic prayers of Paul’s are powerful. Paul had a brilliant mind but was deceived and, out of his extreme zeal, had been persecuting the Church. But suddenly, He had a supernatural encounter with God that changed everything. His prayers are anointed with the power of God. His prayers are model prayers. Pray them on a regular basis. Have several copies in your prayer room. We have them when you come in the door at IHOP in Kansas City.

We must seek to ask for revelation and obey God as we fill our hearts with His Word. The apostolic prayers will undoubtedly bring you up to a new level in prayer and intercession. They will help you see how God views the Church and each one of us. Begin by praying them in your own personal life, and then integrate them in your own prayer meetings.

Choose two of the apostolic prayers of Paul, and pray them out loud each day this week. As we seek the face of God by praying the Apostolic Prayers, our hearts will burn and our light will shine.

“Seeking the face of God, and then gazing at it, has to begin sometime and someplace. It begins by bringing our whole person before the consuming fire who is God, reciting His words—the Bible—out loud to Him and then letting the Holy Spirit reveal Christ to us. This is why we pray the Bible. May it be that as you engage in this practice that your prayer times will have the same result as the disciples’—whose hearts burnt within as God talked with them along their journey of life. Yes, may your heart burn and your light shine.” Wesley and Stacey Campbell

By Debbie Przybylski
Intercessors Arise International
IHOPKC