Come, Holy Spirit!
Pentecost 14- 24 May, 2015
Calling the Body of Christ in South Africa to 10 days of intensified prayer for a national spiritual awakening across the nation!
You will struggle to find a church leader who doesn’t admit that the church in general is not in a good place spiritually and that we need God’s intervention in the church. In Acts 1, we read how the early church prayed for 10 days together in one accord. On the 10th day, God poured out His Spirit on the church. Thereafter, God did so again and again, which we see in Acts 4:3; 8:15-16; 10:44: and 11:15. Over the last 2000 years, thousands of similar experiences have been recorded. Such outpourings of the Holy Spirit have without exception come as a result of prayer.
Thus, we want to call the church afresh to put aside the 10 days preceding Pentecost 2015, 14-24 May as a definite time of prayer for spiritual revival in every church in our country. A suggested theme is “Come, Holy Spirit!”, but churches that want to use a different theme are free to do so. Churches are encouraged to create times of daily prayer where corporate prayer of one heart is offered up. Consider, especially, setting up a prayer chain or prayer watch, where as much as possible, all 240 hours of the 10 days are allocated to prayer. Involve individuals as well as Bible study groups, ladies’ groups, men’s groups, prayer groups and youth groups etc. Ask individuals or groups to take prayer slots of 1-2 hours. PLEASE REGISTER YOUR CONGREGATION by sending an e-mail to watch@jwipn.comor simply reply to this message.
Prayer Guidelines for Pentecost: 14 – 24 May 2015
Lord! Please do it again!
Two thousand years ago, on Pentecost Sunday, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the church. However, many times since then, the church has become stagnant and begun to resist the working of the Holy Spirit. God, in His grace, poured out His Spirit afresh on the church. We find evidence of this is Acts 4:29–31; 10:44–47; and 11:15. Martin Lloyd-Jones, a Welsh Protestant minister, preacher and doctor, very influential in the British evangelical movement of the 20th century, said that when we read these Scriptures carefully, as well as those in the book of Galatians and 1 Corinthians 12-14, it becomes clear that the church often experienced an extraordinary working of the Holy Spirit in her midst.
Over centuries past, spiritual stagnation often left the church powerless and without spiritual fruit. Time and again, the Holy Spirit was poured out afresh on the church, with remarkable results! Today, then, let us pray, as we have done in the past, for an extraordinary working of the Holy Spirit in the church. Without a new and powerful working of the Holy Spirit, the church will remain powerless and will not witness the salvation of the lost, nations being reached with the gospel, the needy being helped and hope being given to our country and the world. We need God's divine power to do this work.
Where does the 10 days of prayer before Pentecost in the N.G. Church come from?
In Paarl, Reverend Van der Lingen and his congregation longed for revival. At the outset of 1861, signs of the working of the Holy Spirit were evident here and there in the Church, and more and more people started attending prayer gatherings. Just prior to Pentecost, 1861, Rev. Van der Lingen called his congregation to 10 days of prayer, just as the early church had done, in expectation of the gift that Jesus had promised them: The outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Many folk attended this prayer meeting, and by Pentecost Sunday, there was a tangible expectation felt by the entire congregation that God was about to do something, and they were not disappointed! As Rev. Van der Lingen prayed during the afternoon service, the power of the Holy Spirit started to move and an amazing revival broke out. In 1867, the N.G. Church Synod decided to encourage congregations to make 10 days of prayer before Pentecost an annual institution. This has led to blessing and much spiritual fruit in the N.G. Church over the last 150 years.
Day 1: Thursday, 14 May 2015 (Ascension Day)
The authority of the Word of God: The authority of God’s Word is being increasingly challenged and it is not seen as the absolute truth anymore. The authority of Scripture is not simply accepted these days. People view the Word of God more as a good set of rules and moral principles. The Word needs to be viewed once again as God’s Word and the truth. The instructions given in the Word are just as valid today, and we need to follow them if we want to live victorious lives. Furthermore, the Ten Commandments are not viewed as the basic laws of God for our spiritual lives anymore, and thus they do not necessarily determine how we live and behave. Many studies have shown that societies which have ignored the ten spiritual laws contained in the Ten Commandments have eventually destroyed themselves. God’s Word should not be seen as guidelines that can help us, but as definite instructions. Scripture contains commandments, not suggestions! They are instructions that must be followed. Therefore, we must intercede for the restoration of the authority of God’s Word, and for church leaders and believers everywhere to bring themselves under its authority once again. The liberal theology of the previous century dismantled the Word’s authority. It brought people to the point where they felt they no longer could believe everything they read in Scripture. They saw Scripture as being full of errors, and to them God was “dead”. He was no longer of relevance to their lives and His commandments did not need to be taken literally.
Day 2: Friday, 15 May 2015
Spiritual work must be done in spiritual ways: Churches often use the SWOT analysis or some such similar method, to determine what is wrong in their churches and what they should do going forward. But, SWOT analyses and other such methods, do not necessarily follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, and don’t tell us what God’s will is for that particular church community. This has led to plans and strategies of man being implemented in churches all too often. Sometimes, business models are used to expand the church, and we don’t wait upon the guidance of the Holy Spirit to tell us what we should do. Churches must come back to waiting on God, reading His Word, and seeking the direct leading and revelation of the Holy Spirit.
Day 3: Saturday, 16 May 2015
Prosperity Teaching: We must pray over the destructive effect which Prosperity Teaching has, and that the church would not fall into this trap. In Prosperity Teaching, the focus is almost exclusively on healing, success and finances. It is assumed that God wants to gives these things to us and we need merely receive them. In essence, there is nothing wrong with this thinking, but the focus of the prosperity is only on that which is temporal. Hardly any focus is placed on the saving of souls, being born again, living a holy life and the cost of discipleship. There is a very strong focus on the “triumphant church”, but no focus on the “suffering church” and the persecution of Christians. Scripture emphasizes both. Too little is said about a life of spiritual abundance and victory over sin (Romans 5:17), the destructive effects of sin, or the fact that sin must be confessed and left behind, that we need to take up our cross and follow Jesus, or that we need to die to self. There is little or no expectation of the life hereafter, eternal life and the second coming of Jesus (1 Peter 1:13), and there is essentially no talk of sacrifice. (1 John 3:16). Very little attention is given to evangelizing and reaching the lost with the gospel (Acts 13:47), and minimal focus is placed on social need, social injustice and the poor (Matthew 25:39-44). The reality is, that pain, disease, death and unanswered prayer is dealt with in a very one-sided way, and people are sent away with feelings of guilt if they don’t experience positive results in any of these circumstances. This is a one-sided preaching of the gospel which immobilizes the church from doing her work in the world. Many people agree that Prosperity Teaching is the greatest danger the church faces.
Day 4: Sunday, 17 May 2015
Ignorance of Scripture: There is a great deal of ignorance concerning Scripture by an increasing number of church members. God’s promises, commands, warnings and knowledge of His powerful acts, are not known. This renders individual Christians, and the church as a whole, powerless, as they do not know God’s will, His character, His commands and His promises, and therefore do not know what God can and wills to do. Pray for a deep hunger and thirst for the Word so that people once again read Scripture, and have great insight concerning what they read. There is little knowledge of the basic dogmas found in Scripture: The Triune Godhead, the death and resurrection of Christ, the covenant, the reality of evil and Christ’s victory over darkness, the virgin birth of Christ, that God created the heavens and the earth and that they are not the result of evolution, that repentance and being born again is necessary to obtain eternal life, that salvation can only be found in Jesus and that heaven and hell are a reality. Scripture contains certain principles that are non-negotiable. There are some things over which we may differ, but these things are not the absolute and irrevocable foundation of Scripture.
Day 5: Monday, 18 May 2015
The fear of the Lord: The fear of the Lord has disappeared from our lives. Whilst it is so that God is our Father and that we can and must have an intimate relationship with Him, and a place where we are part of God’s family and children of God; little remains of the fact that God, our Heavenly Father, does not compromise regarding sin: He is unchangeable in His holiness and He is a consuming fire. Unfortunately, many have moved from an intimacy with God to a familiarity with Him. Too many are blazé in their relationship with God, which has led to us not being radically obedient to Him and perhaps even unwilling to carry out His commands.
Day 6: Tuesday, 19 May 2015
Carrying out the Great Commission: The clear instruction, given by Jesus Himself, that we must take the gospel to the lost and unreached, is not tackled earnestly enough in too many churches. Literally hundreds of millions of people are completely lost and without hope. (1 Timothy 1:1). Over 1,5 million people have never heard the essence of the gospel message. We must pray for more churches to be actively involved in sending workers to the harvest field to take the gospel to the unreached, instead of cutting the missions’ budget first in difficult economical times.
Day 7: Wednesday, 20 May 2015
Praise and worship: When praise and worship becomes superficial, much of our flesh is present in our worship, and our focus is not on God alone. Many of the worship songs we sing are focused on us – our needs and feelings. Few worship songs communicate directly with God. There is very little focus on the cost of discipleship, the blood of the Cross of Jesus, the commandments of God, and total obedience to God. We must pray for a deeper worship, and for deliverance from all the fleshly elements of our praise and worship.
Day 8: Thursday, 21 May 2015
The power of the Holy Spirit and the importance of prayer: There is no doubt that the church in many places is without spiritual power. We don’t see the spiritual power of the Holy Spirit as we see it in the church in Acts 1. We hold conferences about this and write books about it, we try all kinds of new methods and devise plans to expand our churches and disguise and overcome the powerlessness in our churches, but what the church really needs is the power of the Holy Spirit – that God’s Spirit would work in power in the church. Until the church comprehends her absolute dependence on the power and working of the Holy Spirit, until she refuses to go on any longer without it, she will remain powerless and have practically no impact on the world. The power of the Holy Spirit comes only in answer to prayer, and the God’s Spirit will always lead us to even more prayer. Prayerlessness in the church is absolutely destructive and renders the church powerless and without strength. A revival of prayer in the church is necessary for her to be empowered to do her work.
Day 9: Friday, 22 May 2015
Marriage: The church must grasp the sacredness of marriage and preach this whilst confronting the sin of divorce more forcefully. The church must express herself clearly and directly concerning the fact that marriage is a covenant before God – a permanent joining of man and wife. Pray for the restoration of marriages in our society, the preservation of the sacredness of marriage, and that the church not compromise on the (Biblical) construct of marriage.
Day 10: Saturday, 23 May 2015
The poor and social need: The church has a responsibility towards the poor and those in need, but many times this responsibility is shrugged off. God commanded the church to help the poor, widows and orphans, and to care for those in need and people who are oppressed. Pray that the church, through each believer, would carry out this command.
Pentecost Sunday: 24 May 2015
The outpouring of the Holy Spirit: Pray for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit as we see it in Acts 4:31; 8:15-16;10:14 and 11:15. Throughout the history of the church, we read that God poured out His Spirit time and again on the church, literally thousands of times, and the effect this had on the church and society. Such outpourings of the Holy Spirit have always and without exception come as a result of prayer. Usually, it came to situations where great darkness operated and it looked as if the church would never be repaired and society had fallen irrevocably. At such times, God came and changed the church and the country in ways inconceivable to man. This same God is still God, and He still desires to give His Spirit to empower the church and to heal our land.
“The two most important things the Church needs, is the power of the Holy Spirit and more prayer.”
(Andrew Murray)
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