Displaying items by tag: Reconciliation

In January Archbishop Justin Welby tweeted his sadness about the killings and displacements in Nigeria. Writing to the country’s primate, Nicholas Okoh, he offered to contribute towards negotiating peace. He has now repeated that offer, saying, ‘My condolences go to those who have lost loved ones and property. I urge the authorities to seek for ways to ameliorate their sufferings and losses. I call on all people of goodwill to continue to pray for the peace of Nigeria. I mourn with this great country and stand with them in prayer. I once again exhort President Buhari and other authorities, civil and religious, national and international, to build a coalition to end this violence immediately.’ Since January 175,000 people have been displaced by fighting in Benue State and are now living in refugee camps.

Christians are to stop putting politics ahead of the Gospel as they advance racial reconciliation, according to comments at an event held in memory of Martin Luther King Jr. While focusing on racial tension in the USA, the dean for intercultural student development at Calvin College Michigan said there had been ‘significant consequences’ of Donald Trump’s win. ‘For those of us who wept as a result of it, we didn't weep because we're big fans of the Democrats. We wept because we knew not just the national but the global witness of the Church was at stake’, she said. A senior pastor from Austin, Texas called on churches to focus on ‘the politics of heaven’ over ‘the politics of this earth.’

The World Prayer Centre team have been like eager students in these first few weeks of 2018. Yet again, we keep saying “Wow” because God is taking us on a journey and we thought you might like to come with us.

As part of our Resolution 2018 campaign which we started at the beginning of the year, we resolved to pray together for the first two weeks of the year in the mornings covering the topics from our campaign:

CONSECRATION
This has been a key element. Many scriptures relate to consecration, washing our hands, changing our robes and preparing to enter God’s presence. We keep coming back to “If my people” and these four acts of consecration:

1. Humble ourselves
2. Pray
3. Seek His face
4. Turn from our wicked ways.

Bill Johnson describes humbling as reflecting on our insignificance and meditating on His significance. Or as the Psalmist puts it “As the eyes of the servant look to the hand of the master, so our eyes look to the Lord our God.” (Ps. 123). Making Jesus number one has always been part of our Christian thinking but there is a new intensity to this, a deeper call to intimacy.

DEDICATION
After consecration, we come humbly to God and dedicated 2018 to Him. We hear a holy call to dedicate all we have and all we are to Him. Part of this is a struggle because we might like to hold some things back, or adopt a wait and see approach, but servanthood is full commitment. We stood at our first Prayershift gathering of 2018, with people from across the country, at Betel in Birmingham on January 13th – dedicating this year of turning to God. Betel is the Spanish word for House of God, reflecting Jacob’s heaven to earth experience in Genesis 28 – a great encouragement to us as we started the year. They have a wonderful track record working amongst drug addicts. What an inspirational place to think of the wonderful transforming power of Jesus and why this call to turn is so vital.

CELEBRATION
We spent a lot of time in the scriptures around 2 Chron 5 – 7. They record marvellous times of celebration as the temple was dedicated. There was a huge wall of noise with 120 trumpets, hundreds of other instruments and multitudes of voices, shouting, singing, and declaring God’s praise. “For he is good, and His steadfast love endures for ever.” As the Ark of the Covenant entered the temple the place was filled with God’s glory cloud. When Solomon prays his prayer of dedication to the Lord the fire came down from heaven. Wow – let our praise be like this! As we prayed together as a team we were reminded of that familiar carol – “Hark the herald Angels sing, glory to the new born King.” Hark is not a word in common usage but it is really saying “listen up” “pay attention” – the King is here.

RECONCILIATION
We met with a group called England Prayer Watch on 4-5th January for a rich 24 hours. God spoke about our hearts being at one with His, and in harmony with each other. This creates a reconciliation and unity. We were reminded that the Holy Spirt fell when the disciples were waiting and were of one mind. In lots of other settings we are hearing God’s call that His people will be one. We are turning from pride, dissension, independence and asking God to forgive us that we have often blocked the work of His Kingdom. Let us be one that we can be effective channels for the Holy Spirit to heal our land.

INVITATION
At Prayershift as we wanted to know if, having done these things, we could ask the King of Glory to come in (Psalm 24 takes us through a process of consecration and dedication). We believe we had the authority to pray for the doors to be opened that the King of Glory may come in. These are not times for half-heartedness. A prayer as straightforward as Thy Kingdom Come can have powerful consequences when we see the dominion of Jesus in our churches, schools, families and communities.

It is interesting to report that we went through this process of consecration, dedication, reconciliation, celebration and invitation with the England Prayer Watch group. There were intense periods of humility as we kneeled and prostrated ourselves, there was a commitment to deepen relationship, serving each other and prophetically standing shoulder to shoulder in a line for our nation.

Finally, there was the invitation –

Lord we need you. Things must break in our nation and only you can bring it about. We welcome you Jesus, the King of Glory, the life giver and nation changer. We proclaim your Lordship; let us serve You in these times. Amen

Steve Botham

Director of World Prayer Centre

A momentous prayer meeting, likely to have lasting significance, has taken place in South Africa’s parliament. The focus was reconciliation. White people asked forgiveness from blacks, who in turn confessed their sins against the white community. Many were brought to tears during an extended time of prayer and confession. MP Steve Swart confessed the government’s anti-Semitism during World War II, when Jews fleeing the Holocaust were not allowed to disembark in Cape Town. The meeting was held in the parliament’s former main chamber where many discriminatory laws were passed. As Ezra drew people back to God by reading the Law, so South Africa is experiencing restoration in spirit and in truth. People repented of apartheid, inferior education, corrupt laws, detentions, imprisonments, discrimination, tortures and violence. To comprehend the enormity of the meeting, click the ‘More’ link.

The UN warns of genocide, officials accuse the government of war crime atrocities, and Bishop Santo Doggale of Juba denounced President Kiir’s ‘National Day of Prayer’ as a ‘political prayer’. The president had called the nationwide day of prayer for peace and forgiveness on 10 March. They repented and prayed to forgive each other for problems they might have committed to each other. But the bishop told Voice of America, ‘Why should I go to pray where there is no holiness, where there is no forgiveness? It is a joke to hear the president of the country calling for prayers while soldiers are hunting people across South Sudan.’ In February, Kiir called on groups fighting his government to lay down their arms and focus on developing South Sudan but added, ‘If they don't listen to the call for peace, I will declare war against them. I don't think there is any one of you who will blame me.’

As we remember the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, we need to make every effort to overcome the division in the Church that followed the Reformation. In the churches in Germany and Europe there is a growing consciousness that the body of Christ can only reflect Christ and be a powerful and effective witness in society when working in unity. We need to look for our identity as Christians in denominations and the differences between us, but in Christ. Following on from their joint word for 2017, ‘Healing of memories - witnessing to Jesus Christ’, the German Bishops’ Conference and the Protestant Church of Germany have made an open invitation to a central repentance and reconciliation service in the Michaeliskirche in Hildesheim on 11 March. What Christians have caused in suffering and injury to one another in the 500 years of separation will be confessed and mutually forgiven. Unity of the body of Christ also needs alignment with God’s word to stand against the misappropriation of the gospel to support ungodly policies.

2017 is set to be fraught with challenges for the people of the Middle East, Christian and Muslim alike. A brief summary: 1) Iraq will remain precarious, even though the battle to retake Mosul is making progress: Shiite-dominated rulers in Baghdad face conflict with an unwilling Sunni minority. 2) Turkey’s stability is threatened by challenges from IS and from Kurdish militants, who have killed some 1,000 Turkish soldiers in the last two years. 3) There are hopeful signs in Iran, though changes could be slowed by the death of former President Rafsanjani and the expectation of more hostile US policies under Donald Trump. The poor health of supreme leader Ali Khamenei might mean a potential leadership change soon, which could have serious implications for the entire region. 4) The mood in Syria seems to be turning towards a ceasefire and acceptance of Assad staying on as president, at least in the short term. 5) Egypt is expected to see new protests and tensions with continued terrorism, and the economy will remain the number one challenge. The whole region remains in much need of continuing prayer: yet every challenging phase is also a chance for Christians to rise up as salt and light, and to offer reconciliation and restoration where they are desperately needed.