Displaying items by tag: 2017

In October 2016 at our Trumpet call in the International Convention Centre Birmingham, we announced “Be prepared for the extraordinary.” Little did we know how extraordinary it would be.

Extraordinary shaking
Who expected Donald Trump in October 2016? He is the ultimate marmite President, passionately loved and loathed. Who expected Saudi Arabia to arrest hundreds of princes and senior officials and say they wanted to be more open to other religions? We knew Russia and China would be powerful but in the past twelve months China in particular has equalled the USA as a global super power. France has a new, energetic President. The Middle East struggles through more turmoil with the recent Muslim on Muslim terror attack at a Sinai mosque, ISIS being largely driven out of Iraq and Syria and the increased move to a Muslim dictatorship in Turkey.
The UK has had a traumatic 2017. Theresa May will look on 2017 as the year of her surprise election stumble, her conference croak and her inability to drive Brexit forward because she cannot take her party with her. It was a year when terrorism returned violently to our streets. Northern Ireland has suffered for almost a year of no elected government. Equally extraordinary has been the rise and rise of Jeremy Corbyn. He has enthused young people to become politically active yet remains a deeply divisive figure – especially in his own party!

Extraordinary unity
I stood in Parliament Square with the main church leaders standing shoulder to shoulder reading prayer declarations (written by WPC) to repent for our lack of unity and asking God to forgive us and bring healing. Thy Kingdom Come saw ten days of prayer bringing people together to ask God to bless their local community. There is much further to go but we see signs of an increased Kingdom focus with more joined up thinking.

Extraordinary moves of God
40,000 went to the first stadium meeting for many years as J.John preached the gospel. The Turning saw thousands come to Christ in Walsall, Worcester, Cornwall, Wales, Newcastle, Scotland and many other places. The Message Trust has expanded their reach to the Midlands and Wales with a plan to bring thousands of young people to Christ in 2018. We have reports of revival breaking out in Ilford and other places. Around the world we are seeing extraordinary New Testament signs, with many Buddhists monks coming to Jesus in Tibet; soldiers blown over by the Holy Spirit as they guarded a prayer event in the Philippines; 1.5 million people praying together for South Africa and 2 million in the Ukraine. In the States, West Virginia saw thousands come to Jesus.

WPC’s extraordinary year
This has been an extraordinary year for us. We started the year with our new Prayershift meetings, feeling God was calling us to see significant change. Our public meetings have been dynamic encounters with Jesus with an increased focus on prayer and mission and preparing for revival. We have enjoyed extraordinary favour from God with many growing partnerships and a shared desire to hear from Him in these fast changing times.

An Extraordinary springboard
2017 has been a fast-moving year of preparation and change. 2018 promises to be even more challenging as we expect an unprecedented move of God in our nation and elsewhere. In Europe, there is a target for 100 million to be saved over the next ten years. In the UK, we expect a huge rise in testimonies about God’s mercy, healing and restoration across the ages and ethnic divides. In particular, we are expecting a revival generation to be raised of 11 – 18 years olds on fire for Jesus.

2018 is all about Jesus. He is Lord. We expect His Church to fall more deeply in love with Him and for this nation to become more aware of who He is. This means a deeper walk for us all, but after an extraordinary year we will go where God sends us!

2017 has started with a prayer upsurge across the UK with many prayer weeks and prayer events. Ian Cole brought a wonderful testimony from Germany that shows that prayer and the celebration of The Reformation has caught the attention and favour of German media already in 2017.

World Prayer Centre moved into a new season with its Prayershift prayer gatherings, which are focused on praying for God to move and bring change to our nation and the nations. A packed meeting was led in prayer by Jane Holloway, who got us to think about what God’s presence would mean for our home, community and workplace. We then started to pray for God’s goodness, His peace, His beauty, His light because His presence can and will change us.

Steve Botham focused on a clear start in 2017. He described this as a year of promise, presence and prayer. He said our key call as people of prayer is to change the spiritual soil so that the tree that is God’s church can be fruitful. At the moment it is in poor soil, and we are seeing a rapid decline in attendance and a loss of faith, and an increase in sin and rebellion. Changing the soil through attracting God’s presence, a move of the Word and Spirit and a release of prayer, will lead to great fruitfulness and abundance. Ministries like evangelism, children’s and youth work and social action will flourish as the soil becomes richer.

This is a time for significant change and we prayed for God to have mercy on our nation. We asked God to fulfil His promises for an unprecedented move of His Word and Spirit and for awakening in our nation.

The day closed with a powerful declaration from Jeremiah 33:14 “The days are coming when I will fulfil the good promise I made to the people of Israel and Judah.”
We believe this word. These are exciting times when we expect extraordinary things in our prayer times. People of great prayer experience, and none, are coming from across the nation to pray and see things shift.

Join us for our next Prayershift on February 18th?

2017 is a year of promise. It is 500 years since the reformation that shook the world and reshaped history. It is seventy years since Smith Wigglesworth’s prophecy: ‘When the Word and the Spirit come together, there will be the biggest movement of the Holy Spirit that the nation, and indeed the world, has ever seen. There will begin a missionary move to the ends of the earth.’ It is fifty years since Jean Darnell’s prophecy of renewal in the Church which would spread outside, resulting in a public awakening; she said there would be so many conversions that it would actually change the character of the nation of Britain and determine the future move of God in Europe. Please pray for these prophecies to be fulfilled. Pray that 2017 will be a year when God mobilises His Church. Pray for His presence wherever you live, go deeper into His Word, and wait expectantly for the Holy Spirit to work mightily in each one of us and all whom we meet. Our prayer is the prayer of the Welsh revival, ‘More, Lord!’ - and then “Even more!’

In a topsy-turvy world of surprises, in a perilous world of uncertainty, insecurity and violence, what might be the WORD of the year for 2017? Some have predicted that it could be ’fear’ or possibly ‘hysteria’. Christians must resist this way of thinking. When some of Christ’s frightened disciples woke their sleeping Master as their boat was almost sinking in a storm on the Lake of Galilee, His words to them were, ‘Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?’ In a moment, He had calmed the storm. (Mark 4:35-41)  For Christians the word of the year for 2017 must be ‘hope’, a hope born out of faith in the midst of uncertainty and danger. (Romans 15:3)

Get ready for action! 2017 is a year of great spiritual change. It is a year of presence, promise and prayer. It is a year when God is mobilising His Church. We will see extraordinary blessings but also extraordinary challenges.

We are encouraging every Christian to pray for God’s presence where they live, where they work or study, in their family and in their community. For some this will mean taking possession of the land - prayer walking the boundaries of your community, praying for the King of Kings to stand in your local churches, and praying for His peace and presence in local schools and homes. We are going into a fight and there will be times when we need the shield of faith to guard against attacks through sickness, tiredness and discouragement. The Lord will strengthen our use of the sword of the spirit – going deeper into God’s Word and using it to give us authority as we pray.

2017 is a year of promise. 2017 is the 500th anniversary of the reformation, that shook the world and reshaped history. It is 70 years since Smith Wigglesworth’s prophecy - "When the Word and the Spirit come together, there will be the biggest movement of the Holy Spirit that the nation, and indeed the world, has ever seen. There will begin a missionary move to the ends of the earth.” It is 50 years since Jean Darnell’s prophecy. She spoke of a renewal of life in the church which would spread outside resulting in a public awakening. This awakening would move into every level of the nation’s life; on the campuses, universities, colleges, schools etc., into the media and in the government. There would be so many conversions that it would actually change the character of the nation of Britain and determine the future move of God in Europe. Malcolm Duncan spoke in 2016 about a powerful move of God bringing substantial change to the church, and nation and reaching into Europe.

Our focus is simple. We want to pray for these prophecies to be fulfilled and for God’s awakening to flood our nation. We recommend people have copies of these prophecies to hand (download a copy) and pray into them regularly. Our prayer is the prayer of the Welsh revival,“More Lord” and then “Even More”.

Our third focus is prayer. We are praying for renewed prayer foundations. ‘Lord, anoint us for your purpose. We pray for a depth of collaboration, praying with others with power and authority. We pray for greater vision and expectation. Lord, stretch our faith’. This is a preparation time for the church. Recent prophetic words talk about the church being frozen, of a need to re-discover the wonderful dynamic power of the gospel, and pray for a revival that fills us with compassion and a deep passion for the lost. We pray for a mighty mobilisation of prayer.

We are praying for more victories. For many of us expectations have been lowered and prayer diminished. It is time for victories. We want to pray with renewed conviction for the prodigals to come home, for our family and friends to come to Christ, for healings, for the blind to see, the deaf hear and the lame walk.

Just as deep will be victories in our own lives - an end to insecurity and an opening up to God’s deep love for each of us and out of us to others. Let the church see our extraordinary God glorified in 2017.

We look forward to going forward on this journey with you. It is a time for more. It will not be easy – it will be a time of shaking, and increasingly God is asking His people to stand on the front line. For us in WPC, we will start the year focusing on presence, promise and prayer. We encourage you to stand with us as we enter this momentous year.