A few weeks ago I saw a headline on the front cover of the Sun newspaper, it read like this, ’God is in control’. Obviously being a Christian this caught my attention and my heart. This incredible headline was the response from the fiancée of Fabrice Muamba after his incredible recovery after being dead for nearly 80min.
But it wasn’t just this headline that captured my emotions it was also the hundreds of football players wearing t-shirts with these words printed on them, ‘praying for you Muamba’, ‘pray for Muamba’. But again it did not stop there; thousands of tweets appeared across the Internet and media feeds… Continue reading →
I love God. I am also enthusiastic about the law. So the opportunity to comment on the High Court’s decision delivered a little over a week ago in the case of R (National Secular Society and Mr Clive Bone) v. Bideford Town Council -the judgment of which may be read in full here – provided an ample opportunity to merge both interests.
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So I was thinking….
Wherever revival has broken out (in the sense that God’s love has touched thousands of lives with the result that many have come to faith and been filled with the Holy Spirit) it has started with God’s people gathering to pray and beg him to move. When our focus is rightfully turned to Jesus it leaves our ears open to hear what he wants us to pray into, meaning that we can speak into situations and peoples’ lives with insight and pray into God’s heart, partnering with him to see breakthrough. I believe God is doing a powerful work in Sheffield, that our city is on the cusp of something mighty where we will see the kingdom come in many colourful ways. If we want to see the Holy Spirit move in awesome power to release the captives, bring love, bind fear, light up dark places and flood us with open hearted souls then we need to get down on our knees wherever we are and pray it in.
Pray wherever you are, as Paul says in 1 Thessalonians (5:16-17), “ Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you”. So it is God’s will to pray, give thanks and rejoice whatever we feel, whatever we’re doing. Everyone knows this but it can be incredibly difficult to do when everything is pressing in on you, but it doesn’t say pray eloquently, pray loudly, pray in front of others or on your own, pray silently, pray powerfully… All it says it carry on praying… keep the conversation going wherever you’re at.
If we want to see the love of Jesus breaking into our friends’ lives then we have to continually lift them up in prayer. This doesn’t mean we’re all massive sinners if we’re not on our knees 24/7 but it does mean when you’re with people simply ask God in, when you’re walking places don’t just think of how busy you are: lift up your day to God. He wants to be involved in every area of our lives… that’s what full surrender really is, when we can love God and give glory to Him in the mundane. That’s when I believe we really see the kingdom come.