|
Prayer Journey Report |
Prayer Journey Report
A Prayer Journey for England
John Cavill
Ingatestone
Essex
Easter 2009
Table of Contents
1 Preface. 3
2 Acknowledgements. 3
3 Beginnings. 3
4 The Call 4
5 The Journey. 5
6 The Meetings. 5
7 The Results. 6
7.1 From 2 Chronicles 7:14. 6
7.2 From Other Scriptures. 7
8 Interpretation. 7
9 A Word to ‘Not Yet Christians’ 8
10 A Personal Note. 8
11 In Conclusion. 9
12 A Word of Encouragement 9
This paper considers the response required from us, the English, to the current moral and spiritual state of our country. Many people I speak to are concerned about a wide variety of topics and also feel that their concerns are not being heard; I am sure that they are not alone.
When we consider the economic recession, the banking crisis, the state of family life, the welfare and education of our children, the quality of recent legislation and the rise of atheistic philosophies, we can see that all is not well. Our multicultural society is fast losing track of the core values that were responsible for making Britain great; indeed they are seen in some quarters as no longer important.
I love my country and am not prepared to see it run into ruin by those who have power but who lack wisdom and discernment. I invite all those who also love our country to read what I have to offer here. It is primarily for the attention of the church which is the custodian of our Christian values and of which I am part. However I have attempted to write in a fashion that is accessible by those who do not currently attend church regularly and I invite you to read it too; I believe that you have an important role in helping us all to find our way forward, for reasons that I shall explain.
I would like to thank all those whom I met on my prayer journey and all those who prayed for me while I was away. Your welcome and your support continue to be a joy to me.
For some years I have been deeply concerned about the state of our country. There are many reasons. England is notable within Europe for its level of teenage pregnancies and drunkenness, especially among young people. In February 2007 UNICEF reported that the United Kingdom came bottom of the 21 industrialised countries, in terms of the welfare of children. People have used the term “a broken society” to refer to the decline of family life consequent upon the rising failure of marriage and the increasing incidence of single parent families and of fatherless children. Violent crime, often involving knives, continues to increase in our inner cities.
I am a Christian and believe not only that God loves all people, but that His guidance for our lives is given in our own best interest out of that love that He has for us. It is no coincidence for example, that the Bible supports marriage and that marriage is undisputed as the best option for family life. It is also no coincidence that the Bible says that love of money is a root of evil and that many people in England have suffered from a culture of debt. God sent Jesus Christ to restore our relationship with Him and so that we might have life to the full. As a dean of one of our cathedrals remarked to me, “it can hardly be argued that a pregnant teenager enjoys life to the full when such responsibilities are imposed at so early an age”.
I turn 60 this year and during my lifetime England has moved a long way from the Christian values that underpinned her development, made her great and with which I grew up. It is time to recognise this and to change our direction as a nation. England badly needs healing and this is an opportunity not only for Christians but for all those who love our country. It is true that the church has been associated with much harm that has been done in the past and that it is unattractive to many today; however it is time to put such things to one side and to reconnect with our Christian values as declared by the Bible. The Bible remains our reference for all things good, irrespective of the behaviour of the church or of individual Christians. That the church itself needs to change will become apparent from what follows.
I retired last year from my job in the City of London and suddenly had time for all manner of things that had not been possible while I was working. When I sought God for my country, I felt Him ask me to undertake a prayer journey to the principal church in each of the traditional county towns of England, to meet with others who have similar concerns and to encourage the Christians I would meet to pray for our country.
Is it possible to hear God’s voice personally today ? Yes it is; the Bible is full of examples and God has not changed. Sometimes it is difficult to be sure that the ‘still small voice’ really is Him speaking and so I asked my brothers at my church to consider what I had heard. Eight months later and after confirming that I was on the right track, I wrote to the deans and ministers of the cathedrals and churches of the county towns advising them of my visit programme and inviting them to meet with me to pray for England.
The central verse from the Bible that guided my journey was 2 Chronicles 7:14 which reads:
“if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land”. I believe that this scripture text is specifically for England in 2009/2010. It appears on the home webpage of Christians in Parliament and on the home webpage of the Global Day of Prayer as well as in other significant places. This verse lays the responsibility for healing our country on the Christian church and this is not surprising as it is only the church that has the ability to deal with the spiritual forces that are leading us to ruin. It is also key to Dr Derek Prince’s booklet ‘Praying for the Government’ in which the author argues that if a nation is not healed, then the church has a primary responsibility for bringing positive change.
The purpose of my journey then, was to invite church leaders to listen to God and hear from Him what changes He is calling for within the church, that once made would enable Him to fulfil His promise to heal our land. God does not give contradictory messages; either He is giving the message of 2 Chronicles 7:14 to our church leaders as well as to me, or I have not heard Him properly myself. Interestingly no-one I met while on my journey suggested that the latter might be true.
I started my journey at Chelmsford Cathedral on January 15th 2009 and concluded it two and a half months later at St. Paul’s Cathedral in the City of London. By this time I had visited 40 churches, of which 19 were cathedrals and I had met with 15 church leaders or their representatives. Some of these meetings were 1 to 1 and on other occasions I met with groups of up to 15 people.
I organised the journey into 7 regional tours so that I was able to spend some time at home between each. The weather was kind while I was on the road and I was not troubled by snow at any time although much fell during this period. Also, my 12 year old car performed without a hitch during the 2,500 miles I travelled. These were evidences of the effectiveness of the prayer covering I enjoyed during my journey.
Where people from local churches were willing to meet with me I was glad to do so. Where there was no such welcome, I attended church services whenever my itinerary allowed. Where this was not possible I visited each church and spent some time in prayer and signed the visitors’ book where one was in evidence. Wherever I went I took the opportunity to pray for the church, its leadership, its work and its witness and more widely, for each county town, each county and for our country as a whole.
I am convinced that the very act of visiting each county town and praying on the spot has been effective for good in the unseen realms and I look forward to seeing the outworking of my efforts and of those of other prayerful Christians, in visible ways.
I have been privileged to visit some truly beautiful buildings and frequently paused on my way to wonder at the faithfulness, effort and skill that went into their construction and maintenance down the centuries. In all I attended 21 services up and down the country, a number of them wonderful occasions accompanied by great music and a deep sense of the presence of God.
Throughout my journey I was greeted with warmth and hospitality, the meetings lasted from a few minutes up to two hours, and were often held in quite spectacular surroundings.
It was apparent that bar the odd exception, those I met agreed that our country does indeed have a range of significant problems. They saw the need for spiritual healing and accepted that this was a matter in which the church should take a lead. Many also accepted that the scripture passage in 2 Chronicles 7:14 applies to England today.
Some of the church leaders I met shared openly with me about their work and witness in their county town and surrounding area and prayed with me, but did not seem ready to engage with the broader issue of seeking God for the country as a whole. On other occasions my hosts undertook to discuss my message with their teams at their regular meetings and I know that some have prayed accordingly. Most significantly, on four occasions, two in cathedrals and two in parish churches, my hosts and their companions were willing to pray through this scripture and to spend time listening to God while I was actually with them.
I have summarised below the results from these occasions where my church hosts and I, in accordance with 2 Chronicles 7:14, humbled ourselves before God, prayed, sought His face and listened to what He had to say to us. These responses are those of my hosts who I believe heard from God under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and I have arranged them into subjects for convenience:
· Individual Faith and Life: “As individual Christians we suffer a lack of desire to know God personally. We have focussed on ourselves rather than on God’s Kingdom. We are full of ourselves, yet we do not have the joy in Christ of Christians in third world countries who are materially less well off than we are. We are supposed to be in the world but not of it but we have allowed worldly things into the church and indeed we have welcomed them. We aspire to be the model to others yet the light in our heart has dimmed. We have forgotten our first love and we now love little. We are wretched, hollow and unworthy”
· Corporate Faith and Life: “As churches we suffer from a spirit of competition rather than co-operation between us”
· Ministry: “We have moved away from God, watered down the Word of God and reduced emphasis on prayer and Holy Spirit. We have failed to preach the Gospel and minister healing and wholeness and have wasted opportunities to reach those who do not yet know God through Jesus Christ. We need to become a channel of His grace to others”
· Community: “We are lacking in friendship, equality and love; we should develop a bigger heart for people perhaps leading to social action and perhaps modelling to others how to downsize our materialistic lifestyles and instead to raise the priority of family and relationships”
· Attractiveness: “People are not attracted to the church because it is not doing its job”.
· Voice: “We need to give the church a voice, to confront what is wrong and to speak out”
· Summary of Current Position: “The church is standing on its dignity, troubled by petty jealousies and considers itself rich when in fact it is poor”
These responses give an indication of the nature and extent of the changes that God may be calling his church to make and it will be interesting to see how widely they resonate both with other Christians and with those who do not regularly attend church.
There were a number of moments during my travels when I felt that God may be speaking through words that were read in some of the cathedrals I visited (italics mine):
· The words ‘we have not loved you with our whole heart’ used in a prayer at Lincoln
· Hebrews 3:7-8 ‘So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert” ’ read at Durham
· Jeremiah 17:3-5 ‘My mountain in the land and your wealth and all your treasures I will give away as plunder, together with your high places, because of sin throughout your country. Through your own fault you will lose the inheritance I gave you. I will enslave you to your enemies in a land you do not know, you have kindled my anger, it will burn forever.” This is what the LORD says: "Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD." ’ read at St. Paul’s in the City of London.
These words echo those given by my hosts above and link them to very real warnings that the church needs to heed. I sometimes feel that I already live in a land that I do not know.
These areas where change is called for are, I believe, some of the ‘wicked ways’ referred to in 2 Chronicles 7:14. Further time spent praying through this scripture may reveal others and it is important that we establish the whole mind of God, such as we might, before moving on.
The need now I believe, is for more Christians to actively seek God for His word to the church in England today. The results from my journey to the Church of England should be checked by the other mainstream denominations and the findings brought together into a composite whole that Christian leaders can use as input to their day to day activities. In the face of the state of our nation, the church in England can no longer remain as it is but must begin to evolve into what God is calling it to be so that He can bring healing to our country.
I conclude my message to the church with a well-known quotation from the second chapter of Revelation: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
I mentioned in my preface that I see a role for those who love our country but who do not currently attend church regularly. I would like to explain this now.
Certainly the main call for change is to the church and it has to be this way as the fundamental agenda in our country today is a spiritual one and only Christians have a direct, personal, one on one relationship with God that allows them to bring change through prayer.
Bringing meaningful change to the church will not be easy. It is one thing for individual Christians and church leaders to perceive the need and to reflect this through their respective prayer lives and ministries, but it is quite another to bring change to the denominations, each of which has a tradition that spans centuries. Are we then without hope ? No, because we have a great God who delights to refresh His church by sending a new move of His Holy Spirit to envision His people and to bring passion and change.
The church also needs to hear from those who do not attend it regularly. Some of my friends have expressed to me that they feel that the church is a barrier to them finding the gospel for themselves and this should not be. As individual churches become more open to what God is doing in England today they may become more willing to listen to your views and you may be able to help your local church become more relevant to the community in which you live. I would ask that you keep a look out for such opportunities. I am sure that such contacts will lead not only to positive change in your local churches but to many of you discovering the wonderful truth of salvation through Jesus Christ for yourselves, at which point England may begin to see a true revival of Christian faith that will lead to the healing of our country.
I have met a number of people during my travels who are reluctant to consider what needs changing and instead urge me to turn my attention instead to the many good and charitable works that are being done by the church in England. My friends, I do appreciate your good work and I celebrate with you when we see God bless your efforts. They are all important and long may they continue. In particular I would like to encourage the ‘street pastors’ initiative which I think is highly relevant to the communities of which we are part. However we live in perilous times, fundamental change is being called for by God and I would be untrue to my calling if I were to suggest otherwise.
I have no further personal plans at this stage and suspect that much will depend on the response to this paper as well as on my personal devotions. I would of course be happy to collect, collate and publish by email, any further feedback I receive but if this prayer journey leads to the developments I hope it will, then at some point the initiative will pass to those to whom God has already given the responsibility for leading His church. It will be their task to lead change within the church and as God then heals our land, to help our nation find its way back to its Christian values.
We stand at a critical point in our history when those who love our country should come together, embrace afresh our traditional Christian values and work together for the future of our nation. The church for its part needs to hear and make those internal changes that God is calling for, and should then throw open its doors in welcome and service, offering to society a new relevance acquired with the help of considered input received from its friends. I then see the church moving out from the margins of society where it often finds itself now, and back into the mainstream where it will bring good news to many who will hear it for the first time. A revival of saving faith in Jesus Christ and the healing of the land will occur together.
In closing it is worth noting some recent evidence of God’s activity in our country. One example that came to my attention the other day is the overnight prayer meeting at the Excel Centre a few days before the G20 Summit, that was attended by 40,000 Christians from African churches based in London, who met to pray for spiritual revival in our country. God is moving and now is the time for us to fall into step with Him, to the glory of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.
“ 'Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the LORD Almighty”
John Cavill
April 12th 2009
Email: jandscavill@yahoo.co.uk
|
