Having the Eyes of Your Heart Enlightened

When the eyes of your heart are enlightened, you cannot remain the same! God Himself is going to open your spiritual heart’s eyes to see Him and your calling as it really is. He longs for you to learn what it means to walk on ground that you have prayed over, to show up every day relying on the promises you just read and learning to act upon them in the power of His Holy Spirit.

“When they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, ‘These men who have turned the world upside down have come here.’” (Acts 17:6)

What a way to have your life described—world changers turning things upside down. Wow! No matter how they were sharing the gospel, it had to be in the power of God’s Holy Spirit!

In 1 Corinthians 4:20, the apostle Paul declares that the power of Christians is not in their talk, but in the power of the Spirit of God. I want to share this with you in four different versions.

NLT: “For the Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God’s power.”
ESV: “For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power.”
NIV: “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.”
KJV: “For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.”

“From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38 nasb). I believe the authorities who met these disciples saw, felt, and heard this power. These world changers had such a passion, it was completely undeniable and unstoppable because it was God’s power and not theirs.

This is probably one of the main reasons you decided to go on this prayer journey—you want God’s power, His overflowing rivers in your life. That is why we felt led by God to write this book. You can have as much of God as you want; God desires that for you. He is longing for His bride, His church, to seek His face before they seek His hand. Through prayer and reading God’s Word, this twenty-one-day journey will give you a true understanding that Christianity—your love for Jesus—is real and powerful, not just a lot of talk.

Learning about prayer and its precious gift to us, its function in our lives, and the life-changing power it provides will transform your life forever!

Learning about prayer and its precious gift to us, its function in our lives, and the life-changing power it provides will transform your life forever! I’m not a preacher, not a pastor; I have no ministry degree. I’m a normal Christian guy who is also a businessman. For me, this powerful gift of prayer from God is the biggest life-changer in my Christian walk! I know that spending these days before almighty God, worshipping Him, ministering to Him, honoring Him, and magnifying Him, perhaps in ways unfamiliar to you, will open the eyes of your understanding and permit you to go deeper with Him.

Of course, when you gave your life to Jesus Christ to be your Savior, the Holy Spirit took up residence in your life and you became a Christian. But have you consistently had an intimate relationship with Him, one where He moves with the awesome power of living waters flowing through you into the lives of the people around you?

Would you like to know Him this way? Would you like to experience God more intimately than you ever thought possible? I believe that God wants you to experience Him more deeply and wants you to live the abundant, extraordinary life that He promised us. Jesus said, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). And we’re not talking about what the world considers abundance, which is more stuff.

Acts 4:13 says, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.” The Jewish council realized these guys were not Pharisees, Sadducees, or even rabbis. They were blown away because the awesome presence of the Holy Spirit rested on these two uneducated fishermen who were just ordinary guys who happened to hang out with Jesus! They knew the power of Jesus had spilled over to and upon them to make them so knowledgeable and bold.

Well, if you’re ready to go to the next level in your Christian life, then hang on! If you have the courage to take this three-week challenge, read the Word with us, pray with us, and believe with us that God Himself will personally shower you with His presence, then this little book is for you. Join us if you want to change—and I mean really change! You will encounter the supernatural power of almighty God so He can live in you and through you. He longs for you to experience this for yourself. God desires to transform your life into one that allows you to become the very best that God intended you to be, to take you from the daily mundane to an extraordinary life in Christ!

Truly Local: Church as the ‘Soul’ of the City

Belonging means different things to different people. My personal homecoming is bustling into a bar, keyboard under my arm, for a jazz gig with local musicians.

14 Revelatory Questions to Ask a Prospective Church Leader

Getting to the heart of the matter

Mark Glanville

Jazz by its nature as a traditioned, improvised, nuanced, intelligent, conversational art form, is an evocative metaphor for the church in post-Christendom.