39. Speed Prayer: Change of Focus • by Arthur Burk • Sapphire Leadership Group, LLC • www.TheSLG.com • 1

39. Speed Prayer: Change of Focus

We have warred for almost six weeks now. There have been a lot of individual reports of measurable, verifiable, sustained change.

The first measurables were a rash of technical issues in equipment that suddenly vanished. That caught us quite by surprise.

Then we saw a handful of government and medical institution paperwork suddenly come under the influence of the God-speed blessing.

We have reports of a few physical healings.

Some people have gotten jobs, or secured business deals or in other contexts had God-speed visit their finances.

Some people reported just an overall improvement in quality of life without being able to point to a specific item. It is as though the Egyptian Curse is just fading away slowly under the assault of our prayers.

But by and large, the greatest amount of change we have heard so far is with restored relationships within family. Some astounding lurches without any prior warning have taken place. This is quite a surprise to me since I had not associated the Egyptian curse with devouring family relationships, but it is without a doubt one of the most welcome surprises I have had in a while.

Bring it on, Lord!

I felt a couple of weeks ago that we were nearing the end of this season of the war. I have put out a lot of material on what breakthrough could look like, as well as a reasonable amount of war against the demonic forces. We do not have anything like corporate breakthrough yet.

I still think this is an attainable vision.

There are other tribes that have had broad changes in their corporate spiritual climate. Some are heal-ing ministries where a high percentage of people who walk with them find renewed health. Others are prosperity ministries with measurable fruit. Still others are deliverance and inner healing movements. Some are worship ministries.

39. Speed Prayer: Change of Focus • by Arthur Burk • Sapphire Leadership Group, LLC • www.TheSLG.com • 2

In none is there 100% change in the followers, but in ministries that specialize and develop a tight focus on the theology of their choice, there is a system wide raising of the water table of the power of the Spirit.

I dream of seeing that in our tribe in terms of breaking the Egyptian curse and releasing the Blessing of Egypt. People regularly comment on how much I get done with the time I have. This is in some mea-sure the result of the Blessing of Egypt beginning to manifest in my life, but it is nowhere near what it could be, I am sure, and it is not massively flowing downstream to all of the people God has given me a responsibility to bless.

I suspect it could be a few months or years before we are at that level, but I am sure that it will require tight focus, good language and relentless pounding on this issue.

That said, I have been pondering where to go next. We have to stay on task, pounding the Egyptian Curse, but not with more of the same old, same old. So what is on task, but different?

As I pondered that, the answer came back strongly: worship.

After God gave me the answer, I went back and tried to reverse engineer it, and it was quite fascinat-ing. Remember the Hebrews wanted pain relief, but God had a different agenda.

The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out be-cause of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey— the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Is-raelites out of Egypt.”

But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.” Exodus 3:7-12 NIV.

Notice three things. Pain relief was prominent. God clearly heard THEIR agenda and concurred that there was some validity to it. God also had in mind a new place where they could experience the Blessing of Egypt.

BUT, notice that from the beginning, worship was on God’s agenda. And when God introduced the subject to Pharaoh, He said nothing about the first two points on the agenda – it was all about worship.

And, although the land flowing with milk and honey became a prominent agenda for the He-brews, God had a more pressing agenda which was for them to learn a lot about how to worship – since they clearly did not know much.

39. Speed Prayer: Change of Focus • by Arthur Burk • Sapphire Leadership Group, LLC • www.TheSLG.com • 3

So I ponder what the story of the ten plagues and the Exodus would have been like if the Hebrews had the right agenda from the beginning. What would it have been like if they had gathered around Moses on a weekly basis, begging for insight into how to worship this God they did not know, so that they were well prepared for the coming big event in the wilderness.

Bet that storyline would have changed a bit.

So we are going to focus on lessons in worship for the next season of this warfare. What are all the op-portunities God gave the Hebrews to learn worship? How many different kinds of worship are there? Are we looking at an intrinsically Giver flavor of worship? If so, can we extrapolate the other six kinds? Is there a kind of worship that trashes the Egyptian Curse more savagely and more quickly than others (I sure hope so!!).

I know the answers to none of these questions.

This will be a classic Sapphire project. No finely crafted potatoes au gratin here. This will be half baked potatoes as I struggle to stay at least two days out in front of you with this learning curve. Consider it manna so fresh it hasn’t even hit the ground yet!

In light of how long a reach it is for me, I am going to slow down the pace just a tad more. We will be releasing new blogs on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday for a while. Look for the next one on Thursday of this week.

As with the past prayers, be extra alert for the ones that light up your spirit. If there is a prayer that lands deeply, stay there for a week or a month or as long as there is fire in your spirit. Don’t try to keep up with the new releases if there is grace to go deep in some spot.

That said, I am off to the races. I leave tomorrow for Austria, Switzerland and South Africa. Along the way I will be mining the book of Exodus, looking for insight into how to worship in ways we have never known before.

Copyright August 2015 by Arthur Burk

From home, at the end of a long day