As a church, we have set aside this first month of 2013 to pray and fast. We want to hear what God has to say to us and we want to know His direction and guidance. We want to rise up and do His will.

On Sunday, we sang a song that was very popular in the 1980s: ‘Rejoice, rejoice, Christ is in You’ by Graham Kendrick. That song urges us to recognise who we are in Christ and to ‘arise, a mighty army, we arise‘. The first verse says:

“Now is the time for us to march upon the land
Into our hands, He will give the ground we claim
He rides in majesty to lead us into victory
The world shall see that Christ is Lord.” (‘Rejoice, rejoice’, Graham Kendrick)
‘Rejoice, rejoice’, Graham Kendrick

As we have been walking the streets of Goldthorpe and praying, there is a longing in our hearts for us to see people coming to know Christ as Lord. We are engaged in a spiritual battle, for two kingdoms compete for our allegiance (see Eph 2:1-10). Psalm 68 starts with the prayer ‘May God arise and may his enemies be scattered’, but there are also many exhortations in the Bible for us to arise and wake up (eg Rom 13:11, Eph 5:14, Rev 3:2). We can be confident and have hope as we engage in this spiritual battle, for we know the One who goes before us, who stands behind us, who is at our side (Ps 139:7-12). We are not alone!

“I know who goes before me
I know who stands behind.
The God of angel armies
Is always on my side.
The One who reigns forever,
He is a Friend of mine.
The God of angel armies
Is always by my side.” (‘Whom Shall I Fear (God of Angel Armies)’, Chris Tomlin)
‘Whom Shall I Fear (God of Angel Armies)’, Chris Tomlin

Stephen preached last night from Luke 9:1-6, looking at the disciples’ commission and the challenges of following Jesus.

As a child, Stephen always loved the adventures of Paddington Bear.

Paddington was always ready for adventure! When planning holidays, there are various stages: deciding the destination and booking the holiday; getting provisions and clothing ready; saving up money and then eventually setting off with anticipation and excitement. When Jesus sent His disciples out on their first mission, He commissioned them to go and preach the gospel and gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases (passing on to them the authority He Himself had, see Matt 28:18-20). He told them, however, to set off with no staff, no bag, no bread, no money and no extra tunic – not at all like the baggage that accompanies us on holidays!

We choose to follow Christ, which is the first step on our journey. The journey then does not follow our preconceptions or expectations, however. All Christ really demands from us is that we trust Him. We are not allowed any ‘external’ props to hold us up; we are to trust that God will provide for us on this journey. TRUST needs to be in capital letters, for it is absolutely fundamental to our journey as Christians!

What extra baggage do we need to shed in this new year? Jesus said that His yoke was easy and His burden was light, but so often we hold back and try to work things out with our own reasoning. Jesus gave them all they needed (the power and authority to deal with the situations they would face which were beyond their natural abilities) and promised to be with them always. All our requirements will be met in every way, but we need to learn to trust God for everything we need.

Garry continued his series on 2 Pet 1:3-9 this morning, looking at adding self-control to our goodness and knowledge.

Self-control (translated as ‘temperance’ in the KJV) is having power or force or strength over one’s self. Temperance reminded Garry of ferrous metals which need ‘tempering’ (a process by which the hardness or elasticity of metals (such as steel) is improved by heating and re-cooling it.) If a metal is heated and then cooled suddenly, it becomes very hard but is also very brittle; if a metal is heated and cooled gradually, it becomes softer and more pliable. The ideal is somewhere in between!

Christians are often characterised as soft and pliable, this being seen in negative terms (‘soppy’, ‘wimps’ etc.) We need to have backbone, a strength of character that allows us to bend without snapping, even if others are urging us to go one way and we know that we need to go God’s way. Sin no longer has mastery over us (see Rom 6:5-6), because our old self has been crucified with Christ. God has liberated us from the desires that ruled over us (see Eph 2:1-2). We have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light, but the Spirit does not make us slaves (see Rom 8:15). God has purchased us with the blood of Christ and is our rightful owner now, but it is as if He has given the remote control back to us. We are now free to choose to obey and to surrender to Him (or to give in to the old way of living and to the temptations of the devil.)

Paul talks about self-control using the imagery of athletics in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27. Self-disciplines is required in any aspect of life if we are to succeed. We don’t hate our bodies (see Eph 5:29), but at times we have to push through the pain barrier and do that which is the right thing to do, regardless of our feelings. Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit and is something that, although instantly accessible to us through God’s Spirit, tends to grow within us as we learn to say ‘no’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age (Titus 2:13).

Paul urges Timothy to spurn all that is evil and to ‘run away from infantile indulgence. Run after mature righteousness—faith, love, peace—joining those who are in honest and serious prayer before God.’ (see 2 Tim 2:19, 22-23, The Message.) We have been given the power to choose whether we serve God or serve our own appetites, whether we ‘become the kind of container God can use to present any and every kind of gift to his guests for their blessing.’ (2 Tim 21, The Message)

Some of you may wonder what exactly we do on a prayer walk. The clue (as Dave so often says!) is in the name: we walk and we pray. But prayer can, of course, take many forms. Mark has written a prayer for us to read out at the end of each street. That asks God to bless the people who live there and their homes and to release His Holy Spirit to work in these streets and to bring people to a knowledge of Christ as Saviour as well as to guard and protect us and local people.

We often pray silently, asking God to move and to show us exactly how He wants us to pray. Sometimes we may pray outloud, just talking to God about what we see and what we long to see. I often sing as I pray, but then that’s just me!

Jesus sent His disciples out in pairs, so we often walk with other people:

Malachi 3:16 says “Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard.” Sometimes our prayers consist partly of our talking with each other as we walk and lifting up the things we share to God.

To help with this blog, we also take photographs during the prayer walks. We are planning to put up many of these photos in church as a visual stimulus and aid to prayer for the streets of Goldthorpe long after the prayer walks are completed. God is able to use many different forms of prayer and we believe that people respond to different things when praying, so we want to use everything we can to inspire and encourage people to seek God.

Yesterday we finished the walk on High Street. The intersection of High Street and Barnburgh Lane houses the Dearne Enterprise Centre and the local Job Centre is situated on High Street:

We prayed for economic regeneration and for local people to benfit from training and find jobs, for the unemployment rate in Goldthorpe is much higher than the national average and can be a major cause of poverty and deprivation.

Because JJ’s Chippy were celebrating, some of us also joined in their celebrations!

(You can tell we weren’t fasting yesterday!)

All you need to do these prayer walks is a heart for God, a longing to see Him work in our village and an hour to spare from 12 noon until 1 p.m. (or thereabouts) on Saturdays. Come along and join us next week!

Last week on the prayer walk, we prayed over the water tower and asked God’s Spirit to flow into people’s lives in the same way that the water flows from this water tower into people’s houses.

Today we prayed for the BT communications hub in Goldthorpe:

We pray that Jesus, the Word of God, will speak to us and will reveal Himself to the people in Goldthorpe. We come alive when He speaks life to us! Mobile phones are practically ubiquitous now in our country. We have a God who is not simply ubiquitous (appearing to be in more than one place at the same time) but who is omnipresent (present everywhere at the same time!)

Today was the second prayer walk and once again, we walked various streets in Goldthorpe, praying that God would bring life by His Spirit to this place.

So many parts of Goldthorpe are ruined and desolate. The church that used to meet on Frederick Street has closed:

The Barnsley British Cooperative Society used to have a building here, but this is now just a house and the commemorative plaque is damaged:

But the picture is not all doom and gloom. We saw more new houses being built today:

The old secondary school was demolished and a new building (Dearne ALC) is now open:

The Dearne Enterprise Centre on Barnburgh Lane works hard to offer adult education classes, training and benefits advice as well as giving opportunities for volunteering (this is where I first learnt to use a computer twenty-five years ago!)

And JJ’s Chippy on Frederick Street was celebrating 15 years of trading today, offering various raffle prizes to loyal customers:

We live in the physical world, but we also inhabit the spiritual world since we have been seated with Christ in the heavenly realms (Eph 2:6). There are times when all we see with our natural eyes is desolation and death, barrenness and brokenness. Last week we were encouraged by Isaiah 58:12 (“Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.”) This week, I have been greatly encouraged by Ezekiel 37, inspired by the song ‘Awake My Soul’ on the new Chris Tomlin album, ‘Burning Lights’. This song looks at how we need God’s Spirit to breathe on us and God’s word to speak to us if we are to have life. In Ezekiel 37, Ezekield sees the miraculous as the valley of dry bones comes to life as he prophesies in obedience to God:

‘Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.”’ So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet – a vast army.’ (Ezek 37:9-10)

“Breathe on me, breath of God, breathe on me
Breathe on me, breath of God, breathe on me
I come alive, I’m alive when You breathe on me
I come alive, I’m alive when You breathe on me

Awake, awake, awake my soul,
God, resurrect these bones
From death to life, through You alone
Awake my soul.” (‘Awake My Soul’, Chris Tomlin)
‘Awake My Soul’, Chris Tomlin, featuring Lecrae

As I walk the streets of Goldthorpe, this is my prayer: ‘God, breathe on these streets. Breathe on these people. God, resurrect these bones. God, where there are broken walls, repair them. Where there are streets with boarded-up houses, restore them. Where there is death, bring life.’ Only God can do this, but our God is able!