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A RISING TIDE OF PRAYER!
‘PRAYER: The sinew that moves the muscle of God’ [summary of Charles Spurgeon quote]
“We must begin to believe that God, in the mystery of prayer, has entrusted us with a force that can move the Heavenly world, and can bring its power down to earth.” Andrew Murray
“Show me a people on their faces before God - gripped in the unction of prayer and I will show you a people ready for revival.” Duncan Campbell, Lewis Revival
I normally start these e-letters with a Scripture verse or two, but this time I have started with these quotes because they remind us powerfully why we pray, and why we need to pray – to pray earnestly, persistently – ‘without ceasing’ – to keep on ‘asking, seeking, knocking’.
As the darkness around us gets darker, so the need for the light of the Gospel to shine ever more brightly increases. As the impact and influence of the Church on society continues to weaken (so it would appear), so the need increases for the power and holiness of God, for the true ‘fear of the Lord’, to flood our communities and our nation once again. And it all starts with prayer!
The media love to report on the decline in church membership and attendance, as well as on Church or Christian scandals and ‘wrong-doing’ , and if we believed everything we read or listened to, it would be very easy to despair that the situation is hopeless, irretrievable almost, and there is little that can be done to change the downward trajectory.
There is no doubt that the Church today faces many, many challenges. But as some, possibly many of you reading this know, there is another side to the story – God is still on His throne and His plans and purposes will prevail against all opposition!
I want to encourage all reading this – and those you may pass it on to. The Lord IS ‘building His church’ in these days! These ARE the days of Nehemiah – ‘rebuilding the broken walls’, of Ezekiel – ‘the dry bones becoming as flesh’, of David – ‘rebuilding a temple of praise’.*
One sign of this – a very significant sign – is the increase in prayer across the nation. Often unseen and ‘under the radar’ this rising tide of prayer is both a response to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, and a result of growing desperation as we see what is happening to society around us.
This has involved Christians at every level, but especially significant has been the growth in local and national gatherings of church pastors, ministers and leaders. There have always been groups of leaders meeting to build relationships, work together and most importantly pray together for each other, their churches and their communities, but the past 4 or 5 years has seen a significant growth – a significant increase in the willingness of leaders to commit time from their busy schedules to gather together in prayer and intercession for their regions and for Scotland.
Partly as a result of their shared experience in working together on outreaches under the ‘Turning’ banner in 2018 and 2019, new leaders prayer groups sprang up in major cities such as Edinburgh and Glasgow and despite the impact of Covid and lockdowns, these groups have persevered and have grown. The Edinburgh weekly gatherings now include leaders from the Lothians and Fife, and the Glasgow monthly meetings now include leaders from surrounding towns in the Greater Glasgow region. This is in addition to the groups already meeting in Dundee, Stirling, Falkirk/Larbert, Aberdeen, Inverness, Ayrshire, Shetland and elsewhere.
In January 2020, two months before the first Covid lockdown, a gathering of around 120 leaders and spouses from all over Scotland representing almost every denomination or network gathered in the Dunblane Hydro for 2 days of fasting and prayer for the Church and nation. In January 2023 around 180 gathered again to fast and pray in the McDonald Inchyra hotel at Polmont. This will happen again in January 2024 with additional capacity booked – a rising tide of prayer!
The National Prayer Breakfast has been a popular annual prayer event for many years, held most recently in the Prestonfield Hotel Edinburgh. In 2023, for the very first time all 400 places have been booked – they were sold out soon after bookings opened in April – a growing hunger for prayer!
Building on the growth in leaders’ prayer groups there is now a 2-monthly online prayer gathering attended by leaders from across the nation. The most recent of these in the last week of May had 100 screens with over 100 present – building unity across the nation through prayer!
That same week there was the first of the bi-annual gatherings since Covid in the Holyrood Parliament, hosted by a Christian MSP with 3 other MSPs present, bringing together Christians from across central Scotland for a powerful time of worship and prayer for our Parliament and nation. In another first this gathering was live-streamed. This is all in addition to the weekly gatherings of Parliamentary Prayer Scotland which continued faithfully online during Covid and are now back to in person as well as online. We return to Parliament in November – declaring the sovereignty of God through prayer in the nation’s Parliament!
For the second year running Trypraying’s familiar banner was seen outside close to 600 churches, on buses operating out of every depot in Scotland, and on the ticket barriers at Queen Street, Waverley and Haymarket rail stations – taking prayer into the public square!
This is just a snapshot, a flavour of what God has been and is doing in the area of prayer in Scotland – and beyond. There is more, so much more and this rising tide is being mirrored throughout the UK. A new door has just opened for Trypraying, with the prisons ministry Junction 42 asking for 20,000 copies of the prisoners’ version of the little booklet, to be given away in all 130 prisons in the UK.
Another of my favourite quotes is: “When God is preparing to do something great in the earth, He first sets His people a-praying”**
We hear of churches adding new prayer meetings to their weekly/monthly programmes. In the run up to Pentecost churches throughout Greater Glasgow have come together for 8 days of 24/7 prayer and fasting for their city and the nation, with a different church in the region hosting an evening of worship and prayer, culminating in a region-wide celebration in central Glasgow on Pentecost Sunday evening.
Prayer is on God’s heart long before it is on ours. God is ‘orchestrating’ the rising tide of prayer because He is getting ready, and getting us ready, for something great!
So, despite all the challenges, despite all the negatives we see and hear all around us, let us not lose heart. There IS another side to the story! There IS a shift taking place in the spiritual atmosphere as we continue to pray, as we persevere in prayer!
Don’t stop! Don’t give up! The outpouring of the Holy Spirit, revival in our churches and transformation in our communities could be just one prayer away!
May you know the Father’s favour, provision and blessing as you persevere in prayer and intercession for your families, neighbourhoods, towns, cities, the Church and our beloved Scotland!
Alistair Barton
Director
*Words from ‘Days of Elijah’ by Robin Mark **Matthew Henry
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REVIVE SCOTLAND
What is Revive Scotland? It is the vision of the Gospel being shared through street evangelism and open-air events in communities throughout Scotland over a 3-year period. It was given to Pastor Rob McArthur who leads River Church in Banff, part of a family of churches in the north-east and Aberdeen.
Over summer 2022 Rob and his team took their fully-equipped mobile stage to week-long outreaches in Elgin, Thurso, Lewis, Tain, Fraserburgh, Aberdeen and Banff. Working closely with local churches they recorded 258 commitments to Christ, 27 healings, and powerful moves of the Holy Spirit restoring broken relationships, bringing hope to the hopeless and ‘freedom to the captives’.
Local churches discovered, or re-discovered, a passion for mission. God met every need, with over £112,000 being donated to meet all costs, in particular of the special stage and sound system made just for them. Complementing the local church teams, teams of volunteers came from churches in USA linked to River Churches – meeting all their own travel and accommodation costs.
This year the team will be in 6 central locations:
21-28 May – Kirriemuir
4-11 June – Livingston
18-25 June – Bellshill
2-9 July – Elderslie
16-23 July – Kirkcaldy
30 July-6 Aug – Moodiesburn
Starting and ending each day with prayer and worship, each week involves street outreach Monday-Wednesday, a Youth event on Thursday, adult events Friday and Saturday evenings and a family event on Saturday morning.
Please pray for:
- Rob and his team – for their health and protection,
- the churches involved – that many members would invite friends and neighbours to events,
- a powerful move of the Holy Spirit across every generation bringing many to a life-changing encounter with the risen Christ,
- a lasting legacy of churches hungry to see more of God’s power and glory in their communities – fasting, praying and eager to share the ‘good News’!
For more details about 2022 and to keep up to date with what’s happening this year click here
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BACK TO PENTECOST – 3pm 28 MAY
‘Back to Pentecost’ is an invitation to Christians of every stream, tradition and denomination across the British Isles and Ireland to take part in a public Pentecost ‘flash mob’.
The idea is for Christians to gather informally at 3.00pm on Sunday 28th May in shopping malls, high streets, railway stations, town halls or key public places. At 3.15pm all will sing the same song then pray the Lord’s Prayer in an act and declaration of UNITY across these islands.
The song is ‘We Seek Your Kingdom’, sung to the tune of the hymn ‘Abide with me’. You can listen to it here and download the words and chords here
At the time of writing almost 14,000 individuals and churches have registered here to say they are taking part. This doesn’t need any organising. It just needs a few folk with a guitar willing to sing in public. Just gather with friends in groups large or small at 3pm, at 3.15pm sing the song, pray the Lord’s Prayer, then move away.
Imagine what the impact spiritually could be with tens of thousands singing and praying together across these islands! There is still time to register and take part. Let’s see more Scottish dots on the Pentecost map!
If gathering/singing in public is not for you, why not do what we did during Covid when we ‘clapped for carers’? Why not stand at your open front door, play the song on your phone, sing quietly along and pray the Lord’s prayer? You will be contributing just as effectively.
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FATHER'S LOVE LETTER
The Father’s Love letter continues to be given away all over Scotland – and beyond. We are getting very close to the next print run, taking us to the amazing total of 1,000,000!
One regular supporter spends at least a couple of hours each week giving them away at the east end of Princes Street in Edinburgh. Since 2016 he has given away over 100,000 and many an interesting conversation has resulted!
Another is currently delivering a copy to every household in East Renfrewshire. So far 4,000 out of approx. 40,000 homes have received a very special letter!
Some recent requests are from churches planning outreaches over the summer. Could you/your church give away the Father’s love over this summer? If you can, do get in touch. We continue to believe that all these seeds of the Father's love sown in Scotland and beyond will one day produce a great harvest!
Whatever amount you can use – large or small - please do email us.
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