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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

The Children of Israel heard the trumpet call many times on their journey through the deserts to the Promised Land. In the seventh month, there was a blast of trumpets to proclaim a holy gathering and day of rest (Lev 23:24). Similarly, the tribes were called with a trumpet blast to stand before Mount Sinai - wrapped in smoke because the Lord descended on it in fire (Ex 19:18). They are told they must send a loud trumpet throughout the land to proclaim the Day of Atonement (Lev 25:9). In Numbers 10, they are told that trumpets will sound to summon the congregation and to break camp. When the walls of Jericho fell the trumpets blew. 120 trumpeters made a huge noise of praise and worship when Solomon dedicated the temple. Psalm 98 tells us to make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord with trumpets and the sound of the horn.

On Saturday 9th June 2018 at the International Convention Centre Birmingham, we shall be sounding the trumpet.

• It will be a trumpet call to mobilise God's people to come and pray for our nation to turn.
• It is a trumpet of declaration - it is time for an unprecedented turning in our nation.
• It is the trumpet of victory - walls, barriers and obstacles come down.
• It is a trumpet of consecration - it draws God's people into His presence.

Joel 2 shows the link between turning and trumpet blowing - "Even now" declares the Lord, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning." At this late time, we can still turn. "For He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and He relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave behind a blessing." (Joel 2: 12 - 14). Here is this wonderful picture of our God and a marvellous insight into turning - as we turn, God turns. Turning shifts things in heaven.

Joel then takes this time to turn further "Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly, gather the people, and consecrate the assembly." Joel 2 :15, 16. It is time to gather. This is the great call for our times - it is time for God's people and our nations to turn away from our wicked ways and to turn to the love, mercy, forgiveness and power of Jesus.

Jean Darnall brought a substantial prophetic word to our nation fifty years ago. God was going to renew His church and awaken this nation. We would see fire and lightening and a powerful move of the spirit of God. We believe that time is now. So, we call you and your friends, and your church to a solemn assembly on 9th June.

Let us stand together to pray for renewal in the church and an awakening in the nation. It is time to turn.

The last great command that Jesus gave to His disciples was “All authority has been given to me. Therefore, go out and make disciples of all nations, baptising them ……” Matt 28:18. He did not say – “Go out and make converts”, or “Go out and find people in need of counselling”, or “Go out and sign up some church members”. These are all laudable but they are not the Great commission. Have we lost our call to make disciples?

The scriptures say Jesus taught His disciples. He committed time to them “He withdrew with them to the lake” Mark 3:7, “He was teaching His disciples” Mark 9:31. He challenged them to “let the little children come to me” Luke 18:16. He encouraged them “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” John 15:8. After the resurrection “He appeared to them for 40 days and spoke to them about the Kingdom of heaven.” Acts 1:3. What an incredibly rich and wonderful period that would have been, preparing the disciples for the birth of the Church and their role within it.

We started 2018 with the resolution that we commit to be better disciples of Jesus Christ. We have found ourselves in some tremendous times of prayer and insight as we consecrate who we are and what we are doing to Jesus. In turn, He is giving us wisdom and direction and the authority to declare change.
Some years ago, research within the seeker friendly Church movement found they had made a grievous error. They had created baby Christians. There was a good track record of attracting people to services but a poor one in equipping people to pray, study the word, or bring others to Christ. The keenest Christians were the most disillusioned. Church had become a nursery for babies, a place for dependent people rather than a place sending independent people out to show Jesus to the world.

There is a book for cyclists called ‘The Rules: The Way of the Cycling Disciple’ with rules like #6 – Free your mind and your legs will follow. The letter to the Philippians gives us the ‘Way of Jesus disciples’:

• He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. v1:16
• I press on towards the goal, to win the prize, for which Christ has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus. v3:14
• Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your interests but each of you to the interests of others.” v2:3,4.
• Let your gentleness be evident to all. v4:5
• Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfil His good purpose. v2: 10.11
• Stand firm in the Lord v4.1

A friend put it to me recently “Jesus is on the throne of my heart.” As a disciple, I want Him to shape my actions, my feelings, and my life. Jesus’ standards are high. We are His servants and He wants us to serve with confidence, authority and capability. We need to understand the gifts and the abilities God has given us. Where has He called us to? We are not all the same, the body is made of many different parts. We move at different paces, are motivated by different things, work in different ways – but whoever we are, Jesus wants us to be fruitful. His servants get things done.

Disciples need to be resilient. Simon Guillebaud describes it “There’s a battle going on for our hearts. What I watch, listen to, spend money on and give time to.” We need to keep asking the question, is Jesus on the throne of our heart? We all know we can plateau, or get stuck in the past, or on what feels comfortable.
Peer discipleship can be a very powerful tool. I have worked with two other guys for nearly twenty years. We pray for each other every week by email and reflect on what God is doing in our lives and we meet together to ensure we are being stretched and challenged. This has been an essential part of my Christian walk.

Finally, we go back to Jesus command, “Go and make disciples”. In this Time 2 Turn we anticipate many coming to faith who will need welcoming and encouraging. They may not be comfortable people, they may have a very different lifestyle or experience to us. We are not called to make comfortable people to fit into comfortable churches. Our call is to make disciples, people who have found freedom in Christ, have a fire to learn about Jesus, and represent His Kingdom. It is up to us.

Steve Botham

Director of World Prayer Centre

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ne of the calls we believe God has given us at World Prayer Centre is to act as Watchmen. We know that watchmen have to make sense of what they can see, but their role is to serve. In this role, we will give you strategic overviews from time to time. We’d love to get your feedback but we hope this will encourage and bless your prayer life and focus.

Malcolm Duncan spoke powerfully at our recent ‘As One’ National Prayer Conference. He made the powerful comment that people of prayer are the lungs in the Body of Christ. The Body needs the lungs to function. Malcolm and others have helped us identify five themes we believe are on God’s heart at this time. Download Malcolm's podcasts.

Be filled
God wants us to ensure our lamps are constantly full of oil. In WPC, we are continuously praying to be filled. “Breathe on us breath of God,” let us be equipped, refreshed, energised and led by Your Spirit. This is a time to pray for those close to us to be filled, and for our churches to be filled with His Spirit, His presence and His love. This is a time to see things changed, and renewed by the breath of God.

God’s extraordinary
Ian Cole, WPC founder, has a vision for God’s extraordinary. We believe God wants to equip us, in these times with extraordinary resilience, extraordinary intimacy with Jesus, extraordinary unity and extraordinary faith. As we pray continuously to be filled, we want to keep praying for God’s extraordinary. He is equipping us for a new extraordinary time. Let us keep praying big prayers, and wait on God for the faith to see significant change. Let our 2017 testimonies be about the extraordinary love, goodness and power of God. Read Ian's article on the extraordinary.

Word and Spirit
The Word and Spirit are God’s great gift to His church and to the world, but they have been neglected. We have now moved into a time when they have been powerfully combined. Our experience in WPC is that the Spirit of God is revealing more and more from the Word. The Word is alive and active. This in turn is triggering powerful, authoritative prayer. So our encouragement to you is – expect more and keep your Bible by your side!

Call the midwives
At our conference in March, Brian Mills brought a simple word “Call the midwives”. We believe God is doing something new and very special in the nation; these will be God’s new babies! For us the “call the midwives” word links to our long wait since 1992 for what we call our Isaac – a World Prayer Centre building which can equip and empower people of prayer. We believe God was promising us that the wait is over and the promise will be fulfilled in the coming years. Many others have long term dreams and visions and it seems God was saying “now is the time” to them as well.

R.T. Kendall also carries an Isaac burden, also dating back to 1992. He believes God is going to release the greatest revival the world has ever seen – and it is God’s Isaac. He describes it in his remarkable book, “Prepare your heart for the Midnight Cry”. He looks at the story of the wise and foolish virgins – both had the Word and Spirit, the lamp and the oil – but only half of them had kept the lamp filled. We have always believed that the WPC building and the great revival would be aligned. 2017 is a highly significant year – heavens strategies are being unveiled.

Be alert
We believe God’s word to people of prayer is - “Be alert”. We are being instructed to be on constant look out and engage in spiritual warfare. We need to know the enemies tactics – sickness, unbelief, tiredness, lost confidence, broken relationships and fear. We stand with faith and perseverance and take ground from the enemy. We believe that our God is able, that Jesus’ commitment to us is total and the cross is the place of victory. As God’s army we stand together on the alert – not alone.

Knowing the Times
Part of our role is to understand these fast changing times. On the one hand we can see chaos, uncertainty, tension, intimidation and fear. On the other hand we see Jesus, the Rock, the Everlasting One, the Redeemer and Restorer whose depth of love can change everything. So our decision in these times is to look to Jesus. We believe it is harvest time. God is mobilising people of prayer first to prepare the ground but He is also declaring “Awake” to His whole church. The bridegroom is coming, let us hold the lamp, the Word of God close and let us ensure it is constantly filled with the oil of God’s Spirit. Here we are Lord, use us.
The election is in that context. God is calling a Parliament that will enable the great revival; He is preparing the nation for change. In His great mercy we have ten days of prayerwith Thy Kingdom Come and the great expectation of Pentecost leading up to the election.

Standing shoulder to shoulder
God is calling an army of ordinary people into His extraordinary. Unity is high on God’s agenda, and we are called to stand shoulder to shoulder, ready for God’s call. 2017 is a year of God’s extraordinary and we want to encourage you to stand with us and

• Be on the alert – so much will be happening in the place where God has put us. We are watchers on our local walls. Alongside that pray for our nation as we approach the election of this important parliament it will be a time of real spiritual contention. We also believe God has made us spiritually interdependent across the United Kingdom. Pray for the flames of God’s Spirit to blow across each of our nations.
• Pray with expectation and authority – we are stepping up!
• Join us to pray – our monthly Saturday Prayershift gatherings are events where we expect to see God move powerfully. Our monthly Monday meetings – WATCH + PRAY are to stand in the gap for our nation and the nations. We believe the most powerful prayer engine can often be a local small group. Use our 3 Things prayer videos, sign up to receive prayer issues identified in the Pulse and Prayer Alert. Make your requests known to the Lord.
• Send us your stories and testimonies – part of our standing together is to bring God glory! Contact us on social media or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• Enjoy God’s presence – “Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the lyre, Oh God, my God.”(Ps: 43.4). Let us ensure we always have oil in our lamps!

Steve Botham, Director of World Prayer Centre