Displaying items by tag: Ian Cole

Ian Cole, founder of World Prayer Centre, will be celebrating his 80th birthday by embarking on an eight-mile sponsored "Walk of Blessing" across parts of South Birmingham. The walk, taking place on 30 September, aims to pray blessings on every church and school along the route. Ian has set a sponsorship target of £80,000 (£1,000 for each year of his life) and is asking for support based on the number 8 (£8, £18, £80, £800, £8,000...). So far, £22,773 has been raised. He was recently given the ‘all clear’ after being diagnosed with prostate and bladder cancer in 2020. The money raised from the challenge will benefit three charities: World Prayer Centre, Love Your Neighbour (based in inner-city Birmingham), and Advantage Africa (working among the poorest in Kenya and Uganda). World Prayer Centre operates locally, nationally, and globally. The WPC team and Ian's family will join him on the walk, and they are thrilled for any sponsorship support as Ian celebrates his milestone birthday and his service for God and the body of Christ.

At the beginning of a New Year and at this time of reset on our WPC journey, I have felt a prompting from God to call for Shepherds to prepare for a suddenly, some of which will be good and others challenging.

We cannot plan a suddenly for ourselves, but we can prepare for a suddenly in the place God has placed us, on the journey He has called us to take. In preparing for whatever God will release or allow, I have looked at how a few people in Scripture received and dealt with their suddenly experience and how in many cases a suddenly changed the course of history.

Jacob (Israel) who would shepherd huge flocks, is on a journey. Suddenly angels are climbing up and down ladders and God is saying, “I am the Lord the God of your father Abraham and your father Isaac, I will give you the land you are lying on.” From that holy, fearful place that he called the house of God, the gate of heaven, Jacob the twister, changed to one who blessed and prophesied a nation into being.

Moses is tending the flock when suddenly a bush is burning but is not burned up. Moses, more humble than anyone on the face of the earth, faithful in all God’s house, who talked to God face-to-face, leads the nation Jacob blessed, out of captivity into freedom.

David is out tending the sheep when he suddenly gets the call from Samuel to lead the nation and deal with the giants that are trying to kill God’s flock. Psalm 78 tells us that he did so with integrity of heart and skilful hands. No wonder he could write with such authority, “The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want.”

When God wanted to use a king who did not even acknowledge Him to rebuild God’s city and set the exiles free, He said of Cyrus, “He is my shepherd.”

When hundreds and hundreds of years later God wants to announce the greatest happening in world history, He finds a bunch of shepherds, on watch, and suddenly the skies are filled with the glory of the Lord. An angel freaks them out, the biggest choir heaven could send turns up and such is the impact they decide to go and see this thing that has happened, acknowledging the truth they had been told. World history suddenly changed.

33 years later, suddenly to His followers, this Good Shepherd is being led like a lamb to the slaughter, laying down His life for the sheep of all nations to know God’s Mercy, His Grace, His Freedom, His Justice and His incomparable love.

When Peter was asked by Jesus to, “feed His sheep,” his ministry of shepherding started at a prayer meeting in which suddenly the Holy Spirit comes, shakes the house and shakes him and his friends out of the house, to turn the known world upside down.

When God wants to call a nation into His purposes, when He wants to bring a nation into freedom, when He wants to protect a nation from powerful people, when He wants someone to restore, renew, and rebuild, when He wants to turn our world upside down, He takes a shepherd with a limp, a shepherd on the run, the shepherd who is the odd one in the family, a king shepherd who needs straightening out, a denying disciple, an obedient son and suddenly uses them to prepare the way of the Lord in a family, community, nation and the nations. The coming of His kingdom on earth as in Heaven.

At a time of national and global uncertainty, whether we are shepherds in a family, a church, in a community or in Government, wherever God has placed us, let us as good shepherds keep watch. Prepare for a suddenly, in humility, integrity, skilfully, faithfully and in obedience, with a willingness to go and see and believe what God is doing and join Him, even if in our humanity it freaks us out.

Are you ready?

Source:  Ian Cole, Founder of World Prayer Centre

So much of our everyday life journey is governed by the decisions we make; what we eat, what we wear, what we say, where we go, the people we speak to, the directions we take, all contribute to our decision making. We can choose to be positive or negative, critical or encouraging, build up or bring down. Our decisions are generally based on our past, what we have been taught, what we have experienced or what we are experiencing at a given moment. Often decisions are made on an individual basis, sometimes collectively, sometimes they are rash, sometimes considered, but all have consequences. As individuals, families, churches, local authorities, governments, and global authorities, decisions are made every day that affect our lives and the lives of everyone on planet earth.

The Christian journey begins with a decision. Through the work of the Holy Spirit, we are convicted of our sin and our need for a Saviour and we decide to follow Jesus and receive the forgiveness and life He gives. From that moment on, a struggle begins between the new nature that Jesus gives us and our desire to do things His way and the old nature that wants to do things my way. That struggle started in Genesis and continues to this day. Throughout history, in the Old Testament and the New Testament, people lived with good consequences from good decisions made and bad consequences from bad decisions made.

In the Old Testament book of Jeremiah, God speaks to a nation and says, “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is and walk in it and you will find rest for your souls.” Later in the same book, God speaks again and says, “Obey Me and I will be your God and you will be My people. Walk in all the ways I command you that it may go well with you.” In other words, make a good decision.

Today and every day we as individuals, families, churches and indeed our nation stand at crossroads. A point is reached, a decision has to be made. It was the same for the people of Israel in Jeremiah’s day; unfortunately for them, they decided they would not listen to what God was saying but listened to what they wanted to hear from leaders who were deceitful and greedy, who were saying peace, peace when there was no peace.

Today in this hectic, rushing, high speed, sat-nav driven journey of life, God once again is asking for us to stand, pause and consider, look and ask for the ancient paths. Ask where the good way is and walk in it. Walk in the way that brings rest for your souls. So what does that mean for those caught up in today’s frantic pace of life or those caught up in the, ‘don’t know where we are going,’ lifestyle?

Hundreds of years before Jesus, a very wise man wrote, “In the way of righteousness there is life; along with that path there is immortality.” He also wrote, “There is a way that seems right to man but in the end, it leads to death.” 2000 years ago, Jesus taught that there were two paths we could take. In His words, “One was a broad path that led to destruction and the other a path that led to life.”

Today in all of life’s twists and turns, we chose to follow Jesus who said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but by Me.” Today, as again we stand at the crossroads, we decide by the grace of God and in the power of the Holy Spirit to walk in the way of faith, the way of holiness, the way of obedience to God’s Word. It may be an ancient way, but we are promised we will travel well and find rest for our souls. We truly will never walk alone. We would love your company on the journey.

Ian Cole

World Prayer Centre is calling on Christians across our nation to start 2018 in a different way. This is no ordinary year. It is the year of Turning. There is a trumpet sound telling us to awake, to get ready and to dedicate ourselves to the Lord in 2018.

So we invite everyone with a passion to see the good news of Jesus renew His church and transform lives to join us. Pray through this resolution below as God mobilises His people for His amazing purpose.

1. In 2018 through the power of the Holy Spirit, we commit to be better Disciples of Christ Jesus, Son of God, our Saviour, who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
2. We resolve to humble ourselves, seek God’s face, and turn from our wicked ways.
3. We proclaim 2018 a year of Turning for the church and nation through our consecration, dedication, reconciliation and celebration.

We are inviting the Body of Christ to join us on our discipleship journey to:

• Turn from anything and everything that grieves His Spirit - pride, unbelief, idols, disunity, self-righteousness, critical attitudes and in humility and repentance…
• Turn our hearts and minds to Him.

As disciples, our desire is to know Jesus more, to keep Turning and being refined.

We believe that 2018 will also be a year when the Church asks the nation to turn - in our proclamation, preaching, witnessing, caring, loving of our neighbours, and in our praying, we are declaring “It is time to turn.”

We shall not invite the nation to turn to religion, or turn to faith, not even turn to the church. We are inviting them to turn to Jesus, the Light of the world, the forgiver of sins, the Lover of our souls who is the only way to a wonderful relationship with God the Father.

Please make this declaration out loud as your spiritual resolution for 2018:

I resolve to be a better disciple. I consecrate and dedicate myself to Jesus. I commit to serve Him, and serve others and to stand as an agent of turning for my family, community and nation.

2018 - A Year of Turning. God says, “If we turn, He will hear from heaven, forgive our sins and heal the land”. 2 Chronicles 7:14

Download a PDF version to use in your church, small group or prayer meeting.

One of the great joys and responsibilities we have at the World Prayer Centre is to pray for a different nation each day. As with everyone involved in any way with the nations, be it political, social and missional or through prayer, the needs, challenges, emergencies, traumas and opportunities are at times overwhelming.

How do we pray, how do we give, how do we support, how do we encourage our global neighbours as well as our local neighbours? In all the pressures of daily life, how do we care for our global Christian family, our local Christian family, and our immediate family?

Christ Jesus, the Son of God, our Saviour, had everything in perfect balance. He knew His mission was for the world His Father loved, for the nation in which He lived and for twelve men He was disciplining. He ministered, prayed and worked with great love, compassion and truth with all He met wherever He met them.

As you read this article, your world is changing around you. As I write this article, suddenly Zimbabwe is in the headlines. Yesterday it was an earthquake in Iran/Iraq. Last week the leaders of Saudi Arabia were announcing great changes in the nation. Who knows by the time you read this, what else will be happening, what else God will be shaking, what other dramatic news will be hitting the headlines. And that is the point of this article. You have this magazine because you are a watchman or God may be calling you to be a watchman.

The Scriptures teach us to ‘watch and pray’. So not only are we looking, listening, observing all that is happening in the world, but also watching to see all that God is doing in His world.

We know that generally the media only reports on the failings of nations, governments, those in positions of responsibility and individuals. As Christians we note those things, we do not condemn but we pray. At the same time we recognise that as we are seated in heavenly places in Christ, we not only see what the media see but we see how the Kingdom of God is growing around the world. Day after day, sometimes in the midst of great persecution and need, thousands of men and women, boys and girls are becoming followers of Jesus. Of His Kingdom there is no end.

Thousands of young people and children are involved in prayer and mission in their nations. Churches are being planted at an unprecedented scale. Many across the Middle East are physically seeing Jesus and becoming Evangelists and Pastors. Many prayer houses are springing up, 24/7 prayer places, prayer in public places that changes the spiritual climate in a community or nation enabling the good news of Jesus and His saving work to be experienced.

Please don’t fall into the trap that there is so much going on we don’t know where to start. As you hear the news today, watch and pray. Let’s encourage one another to stay alert as we go through the day. Let us look for the stories of where God is at work and rejoice and let us understand that as we stand on God and the promises of His word, our prayers prayed in the name of Jesus change situations, remove obstacles, bring down walls in families, communities and nations.

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

Ian Cole is the founder and visionary of the World Prayer Centre in Birmingham.

It is our joy and privilege as Trustees, team and supporters of World Prayer Centre to be involved in planning and taking part in the Archbishop's call to the Church in the nation and the nations to pray 'Thy Kingdom Come' 10 days prior to Pentecost.

As we have shared, planned and prayed into this call, we increasingly realise the weightiness of praying this prayer and felt it right to share our thoughts with you simply because if we pray for ‘His Kingdom’ to come then other kingdoms have to make way for it. As in the natural a country cannot have two kings, so in the spiritual.

As Christians, through the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Christ Jesus, we have been taken from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of Light, God's Kingdom. As we pray on the 25th May and for the ten days that follow, 'Thy Kingdom Come' then we are inviting the Kingdom of heaven into our lives, our families and friends, our church, the health service, the Government, our education system, our media and arts and the business community.

To pray 'Thy Kingdom Come' is asking God our Father by His Spirit, to come into every area of society so that the light of Christ in us - His body - will dispel the kingdom of darkness and all the evil it represents from every area of our society.

As we pray 'Thy Kingdom come' we are praying for righteousness, truth, love, hope, wisdom, justice and peace to come, all of which the kingdom of darkness despises and hates. At a time when we are constantly bombarded with the evil outworkings of that kingdom, what a privilege to demonstrate through our united praying, our words and actions, that light has overcome the darkness and always will.

We are in a battlefield, we are not fighting people, we are fighting powers and rulers of this kingdom of darkness. Our confidence is that the cross has won the field. We stand in unity with you, praying to see His Kingdom come, His will being done across our nation and the nations.

Ian Cole, Founder of WPC

We said at the end of last year, 2017 would be a year of the extraordinary; Extraordinary good, extraordinary bad and extraordinary unusual at local, national and global level.

Within our own nations political unrest and division is an everyday headline. The uncertainty and challenges coming out of the Brexit vote for both the UK and Europe, together with the constant threat of terrorism on our doorstep. As we look further afield, the continuing persecution and killing of followers of Jesus in a number of countries, (90,000 in 2016); increasing hostility amongst and between nations in Asia, the Middle East and Europe; increased hostility to Israel and the Jews, millions starving whilst nations, radical ideologies and so called religions spend billions on bombs and bullets. We could go on; we are living in extraordinary times.

Extraordinary Faith

In the midst of all that the kingdom of darkness is releasing, our strong belief is that God is ruler of the nations; that He had the first word and He will have the last word. As we go through 2017 we shall celebrate events and prophetic statements that have a significant time line. We celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, 70 years since Smith Wigglesworth prophesied the coming together of Word and Spirit that would herald a great spiritual awakening in the nation, 50 years since Jean Darnall prophesied that the light of the gospel would spread from Scotland across the UK and into Europe, 50 years since the birth of the Catholic charismatic movement. Malcolm Duncan stated that he saw in 2017 across the Church, a renewed confidence in the gospel, a deeper yearning for prayer, a fresh openness to the Holy Spirit, a revived church taking the gospel to Europe.

This year we will see an increased synergy of prayer and mission, synergy being the combined power of a group when they are working together, that is greater than the total power achieved by each working separately. That synergy or unity, will release God’s commanded blessing even life for evermore - extraordinary faith in extraordinary times.

Through Extraordinary Prayer

Prayer is the lungs of the Church. Prayer attracts the presence of God. Prayer changes spiritual climates. Faith filled prayer, persistent prayer, believing prayer, warfare prayer, prayers of thanksgiving and prayers of agreement. Prayers based on the sovereignty of Jesus, the perfectness of God and the truth of His Word releases His power and nullifies the works of the kingdom of darkness. As we pray, “Thy Kingdom come,” that darkness has to shift.

In these extraordinary times our prayer, along with yours, is that God’s breath would fill our lungs as we pour out our praise, worship, thanksgiving and requests. What an extraordinary privilege.

Ian Cole

Founder of World Prayer Centre

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?