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BREATH OF GOD

Here’s the prayer which was at the heart of worship in our church on the Day of Pentecost earlier this year:

Holy Spirit, sent by the Father,

ignite in us your holy fire;

strengthen your children with the gift of faith,

revive your Church with the breath of love,

and renew the face of the earth,

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

It prompts me to share an experience which I take to be a sign from God. It was last summer, on holiday in the English Lake District.

At the suggestion of a friend my holiday read was ‘The Heavenly Man’ by Brother Yun. Yun is one of the leaders of the house church movement in China, and his story of suffering and of the power of God is moving beyond words. Having completed the book I needed to walk, and to pray. It was a lovely calm afternoon as I wandered the road along the north shore of Bassenthwaite Lake, talking through with God what I had read and its impact upon me. The road passed through a grove of mature trees, majestic and still. Yun writes of what God is doing in China in terms of a new Pentecost, and that prompted me to pray, ‘Lord, let there be a rushing mighty wind of your work among us in the West too’.

At that moment, complete chaos broke loose over those ancient trees. They swayed, their leaves singing. The clutter along the road edge was up and flying around. I stood stock still and astounded. Then I laughed. I laughed so loud. Then all was still, as it had been. I held my hand over my mouth, then walked back to the caravan in silence.

Coincidence? The Lakeland hills do this sort of thing to the air-mass as it passes over – don’t I know it from sailing on Windermere! Yes, of course, there is a natural explanation. But the timing. I can only read this incident as a gift, a sign.

But a sign of what? What must I DO in response?

I read it as a sign from the Lord that He is ALREADY answering that prayer; there IS a rushing mighty wind of His work among us in the West, underway. Last summer I knew very little about 24-7 Prayer and all that goes with it, but I increasingly recognise it as one of several evidences of the wind of the Spirit blowing powerfully in our day. Finding out about and rejoicing in all that, is one of the things which has led me towards OMS. So, daily, I rejoice in God that He is mightily at work in the nations and cultures of the West in ways which are new and breath-taking and powerful for salvation. Alleluia!

At the same time I read what happened to me that day as a call. A call to pray daily and earnestly for the mighty wind of the Spirit among the people of God, to disturb us into mission for God and for His coming kingdom. Oh how the churches of the UK need that disturbance! There are a few networks of Christians which take 12 noon each day as a time to pray ‘out’; to pray about mission, to pray about the specific projects of mission in planning or under way currently. Yes, that works. Some days it’s two minutes, some days it’s twenty; every day it’s a participation in the empowering Breath of God, which is always an exciting privilege.

Is finding a daily rhythm of prayer for mission, be it two minutes or twenty, something which God is stirring us to simply get going with?

Tom Jamieson

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