Tag Archives: vision

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

Eye Surgery for a Kingdom Focus

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11692622_990323741030733_6732920235973030542_nWe 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, and they had complete follow-up care with 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 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 short-sightedness and the cataracts that fog our vision. He wants us to see through eyes of faith what He can do in our cities. He wants to put His own eye salve on our eyes so we can see brilliantly what is before us and how 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 wants us to buy salve to put on our eyes. He says to the Church of 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 nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.”

I didn’t qualify for laser 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 prayer in your city for a week or a month. Think about the Kingdom of God invading your city.

We have had 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. Perhaps you are thinking, “But you don’t know my nation—the church is too small and 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; He longs to give us a Kingdom focus.

By Debbie Przybylski
Intercessors Arise International
IHOPKC

Kingdom Vision Ignited

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10989172_963507660379008_1774359157626250699_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 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

Catch and Spread the Vision for 24/7 Prayer

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“Prayer is the key to reaching the world with the Gospel of Jesus. The greatest forces of power in the universe are mobilized, and history is made when we pray. God is looking for men who will stand in the gap on behalf of the land. Ezekiel 22:30; Isaiah 59:16; 63:5″

Houses of Prayer are spreading all over the world. Prayer rooms are also being established in churches throughout the world. Not only are churches starting them, denominations and Christian organi-zations have started prayer watches.

The Salvation Army in Australia and in England started praying 24/7 for a week in 52 of their branches with immediate results. YWAM, with sixteen bases in Western Europe, set aside an entire year where each base took responsibility for a week, filling the whole year with day and night prayer. In 2005, thirteen denominations and Christian organizations in England alone started filling the whole year with 24/7 prayer.

Several prisons in Argentina have established 24/7, 365-day prayer watches where the inmates pray for their families, communities, their country, fellow inmates, and the world. Inmates are converted and change their lifestyle. Breakthroughs are happening in the prisons. Here’s how you can catch and spread the vision:

  • Daily pray that a House of Prayer starts in every city in every nation – Keep on praying for your own city to catch the vision for Houses of Prayer.
  • Rejoice that God is awakening the watchmen – Watch the Awaken the Watchmen DVD and others to find out how the 24/7 prayer movement is spreading worldwide. Visit the Jericho Walls website.
  • Register your prayer watch – The purpose of this website, Global 24-7, is to register and encourage prayer watches all over the world. This will support what God is doing worldwide and help to link 24/7 prayer in different regions of the world.
  • Start a one-month House of Prayer in your city – Use the practical guidelines found in the next chapter as your training manual. Write to us at: intercessorsarise.org, and let us know how God is working in your House of Prayer.
  • Start a one-week House of Prayer in your church – You may want to use one my books on prayer to help encourage your church in intercession. See the recommended book list for an extensive list of recommended books on prayer, intercession, revival, fasting, evangelism, intimacy, spiritual warfare, and how to reach cities and nations.
  • Learn from other Houses of Prayer. Notice how they are function-ing, and what they teach and emphasize. Observe the creativity in each one. Here are a few House of Prayer websites to encourage your heart in how the 24/7 prayer movement is spreading worldwide, but there are dozens of other websites.
    – IHOPKC – 24/7 prayer internationally.
    – Succathallel – 24/7 prayer in Israel.
    – Justice House of Prayer – 24/7 prayer in Washington D.C. for justice.
    – 24-7 Prayer – 24/7 prayer internationally among the youth.
    – Hollywood Prayer Network  – 24/7 prayer in Hollywood for the media.
    – National House of Prayer – 24/7 Prayer in Canada.

I highly recommend the book, Red Moon Rising, by Pete Greig and Dave Roberts. This book gives the amazing story of how the prayer movement is spreading worldwide among the youth. They have 24/7 prayer rooms that have grown into 24/7 prayer houses called “Boiler Rooms” that are modeled after the ancient Celtic monasteries.

These Boiler Rooms are mission-focused and are places of disciplined prayer and outreach to the poor. They pursue missions, justice, hospitality, and prayer. As the world gets darker, they are spreading all over the world at an incredible rate. The vision is catching fire! Here is their incredible testimony:

“A movement to encourage churches to make room for nonstop prayer has spread to 63 nations in the last seven years and is especially multiplying in the United Kingdom, the United States and South Africa. ‘We don’t have a fixed number of prayer rooms because they can take off so quickly,’ said Pete Greig, 37, who founded the 24/7 prayer movement in 1999 in Chichester, England. Named for its nonstop concert of prayer, 24/7 has meeting places as diverse as a bus in the slums of Delhi, India, and a brewery in Missouri. Volunteers pray, usually alone, in one-hour shifts, round the clock, seven days a week for global issues and requests they receive from their international website or from their local communities. Visitors are free to drop in, pray and talk. 24/7 also has planted itself in places where there is a crisis, such as Lebanon during the recent war between Israel and Hezbollah, and in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. Teams also live long-term in needy communities in Mexico, where intercessors can be found ministering among pimps and prostitutes.

‘In a squatter’s camp in Soweto, South Africa, we’ve seen 64 prayer tents spring up in just two years,’ Greig said. ‘The local man who spearheads them said 80 percent of new converts in the camp are maintaining their salvation, and the local police chief says crime has dropped by 20 percent.’ Greig said the movement is being fueled by young people who are passionate about prayer, justice and missions.” Josie Newman

This is only a small taste of what is happening worldwide in the area of prayer. Our God is creative, and we see the unique ways he initiates 24/7 prayer in different nations. Day and night prayer will lead to the final gathering of the worldwide harvest. Let’s jump on board and prepare for this harvest and the salvation of millions of souls. As we pray, let’s expect to see many souls saved. It is time for the Gospel to advance.

“If men would pray as they ought to pray, the marvels of the past would be more than reproduced. The Gospel would advance with a facility and power it has never known. Doors would be thrown open to the Gospel, and the Word of God would have a conquering force rarely if ever known before.” E. M. Bounds

By Debbie Przybylski
Intercessors Arise International
IHOPKC

Praying for the Nations

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The Apostolic Prayers of Paul“When a child of God begins to get a real vision into the need of the church and the world, a vision of the divine redemption that God has promised in the outpouring of His love into our hearts, a vision of the power of true intercession to bring down the heavenly blessing, a vision of the honor of being allowed as intercessors to take part in that work, it comes as a matter of course that he regards the work as the most heavenly thing on earth—as intercessor to cry day and night to God for the revelation of His mighty power.” E. M. Bounds

After returning from 33 days in the Middle East, I saw the great need for 24/7 prayer and worship in all major cities around the world. The task is so great, the lost are in such desperate need, and we have the answer to every problem. It’s Jesus! As I was walking through a city of fifteen million on that ministry trip, I looked into the faces of the multitude. I thought to myself:

How can they grasp such a glorious Gospel when they believe such a great lie—unless we pray for them continually?

Our hearts must be on fire, and our eyes must see the power of intercession for the multitudes in the valley of decision. For this we must have a vision of the divine redemption of God’s love for the lost. The harvest is ripe. And our tiny spark added to others will produce a huge flame of intercession. The glory of intercession and worship is so great. In his book, E. M. Bounds on Prayer, Bounds emphasizes the need for prayer for the spreading of the Gospel:

“The only condition that is to give worldwide power to this Gospel is prayer, and the spread of the Gospel will depend on prayer. The energy that is to give it marvelous momentum and conquering power over all its malignant and powerful foes is the energy of prayer… But mighty prayer is the one great spiritual force that will enable the Lord Jesus Christ to enter into full possession of His kingdom, and secure for Him the heathen as His inheritance and the uttermost part of the earth for His possession.”

It is so easy to get caught up in our own little world and miss the big picture of what God is doing worldwide. We used to live in Virginia Beach, and once in a while we would hear about shark attacks. But I doubt if anyone in our area knew this about these deadly creatures. There’s an interesting lesson we can learn from sharks.

A young man who dives for exotic fish for aquariums said that one of the most popular aquarium fish was the shark. He explained that if you catch a small shark and confine it to a small space, it stays a size that is proportionate to the aquarium. A shark can actually be only six inches long and yet be fully mature. But if you turn a shark loose in the ocean, it will grow to its normal length of eight feet.

It’s similar for us as Christians. If we pray for only our own needs or only the small world around us, we won’t grow that large in our prayers. But if we begin to see God’s perspective on the world that Jesus Christ is Lord of all—and we begin to pray for the nations—we will grow into mighty intercessors with a global vision. God’s heart is for the whole world. He wants us to have a holistic vision of his purposes on the earth. He doesn’t want us to be like a six-inch shark! He wants us to be fully grown.

Let’s become great in prayer by praying for the nations. Let’s learn how to pray Biblical prayers for the nations God puts on our hearts. 

By Debbie Przybylski
Intercessors Arise International
IHOPKC

A City with a Kingdom Vision

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11709522_990326201030487_2695539852316010783_n“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.” Peter Greig and David Blackwell 

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:

  • A new level of trust  – This is developed  between believers of different backgrounds where 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 and heaven’s agenda for their city. 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.
  • Seeking God’s 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 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 wanted 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 was 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 and intercession. 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 periods of time. I encourage you to begin to cry out for God’s presence, and begin praying for God to raise up 24/7 prayer in your city.

Pray through this 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.” Rhonda Hughey

By Debbie Przybylski
Intercessors Arise International
IHOPKC