Just returned from being in Tewkesbury – we will all remember the situtation there with the floods of less than a year ago. Many people are still not back in their homes. The church there has grown together in a very signficant way – and my final meeting was for ‘churches together’… (not my normal place of function!)

This weekend was with a view to coming back with a team later. Tewkesbury is a place where there is a coming together (maybe a Gateway place?) so I see it as a very influential place, where there can be a great impact throughout the area. Indeed in the days of the Lollards and beyond the place had an apostolic mantle, with proclamation, but also an impact in education and also on economics, with the Baptist church setting up the first savings bank in the area. I look forward to returning.

On the final night I asked the Lord for a noteworthy sign by Friday 11th April. I find it interesting that in the Southdowns (see post and bbc link) that there was a sign revealed by fire into aspects of what we prayed for within 24 hours of being there. Perhaps here the sign will be in the gatekeeping scenario?

Signs and the economic shaking:

Northern Rock… Market Rasen… I have (and I quote) ‘expected a third sign to take place and nearer to London that will have implications economically‘. Terminal 5 might well be that sign.

I have posted a review of chapter 3 of Wright on the Discussion forum for those interested. Happy reading…

One of the best weeks in prayer. I have so enjoyed getting back out on the streets praying as I have done less and less prayer weeks these past 2 years. Canterbury and then the SouthDowns was very significant indeed. It is almost impossible to put in writing what took place, and appreciate also that so much is subjective too.

10 years ago this month I wore sack cloth for three days in a conference. The message was:

• it is time for the clothing of humility
• that as we humbled ourselves we would discover that the walls of division were in the main built by us
• that the train that got us thus far was terminating and we needed to get off and on the next train
• the train that we had been on was now the train of convention and was stopping here
• the train coming in was that of developing relationships for the sake of territory

I did not realise that this would have enormous ramifications for my own life. The last 10 years have been the best years, with each year becoming better (and more challenging).

It was a privilege to walk with people I have known for 15+ years these past few days. John and Sue Riddell and their total embracing / marrying of the land (they are also farmers) is most challenging. The urban scene is very challenging but the rural brings its own challenges. The shifts that are taking place though through what they (and others) are catalysing is enormous.

The gates of the community were a major focus over these days. We arrived to some major key meetings on education and they were opening up the old hostilities / rivalries across the community. It was so vital that we prayed into those divisions. The outcome in these scenarios are always a compromise – through prayer they can become redemptive, without the Spirit of God they become damaging. The family gate and children also was another aspect for prayer… and the breakthrough on the class issue was absolutely amazing. As I have already posted this was one of the most amazing days I have experienced.

In 2000 I prophesied that a shape was rising that woudl be abel to accommodate 10,000 beleivers across this area… this time here are some of the things released:

• A mobile clinic that came to bring spiritual health checks: dream interpretiation, prophetic words, instruction on cleansing houses, helaing etc. Going from place to place
• The new coming forth that brought renewal to the ancient. The two being intertwined – this being the key to shutting down the occult
• Community affordable housing schemes with Christian community at the heart
• Continual prayer, mission, printing, sending communities
• University accredited degrees… apprenticeships
• and, and… it is a very rich and receptive place to prophesy

I also released as a word what I have been praying into for some time:

there is a new product that is going to be discovered that is not yet available that will bring in a revolution about waste management. It will be exceptionally efficient and release energy. I have been praying that a believer might make this discovery.

Underground drugs factory found

It was interesting to read on the bbc web site about a major underground drugs factory – revealed by fire… being one of the things we prayed into:

bbc web site.

Martin
(currenlty in Tewkesbury… it is time for places to be on the map)

God has an ability to put together people and events in ways that we could never do. I am in the middle of the prayer days across the Southdowns, and this morning, facilitated by Chris Seaton we pressed in to reconciliation and identificational repentance across the class divide. This is something Chris has carried for some 8 years but the first time that he has been able to release it on the ground in a specific locality at a depth. It is unfair to give names to who participated, but….

There was an amazing breaking through as we did this in prayer. The presence of the Lord, tears, forgiveness was so tangible. (The area here is so entrenched in issues surrounding the landed and the working class that it is a very powerful place for healing of these issues.)

Later today – and I have just returned from this – again too many details will not be appropriate, but we were on land belonging to some wonderful believers who are totally ‘landed’ in background. They are carrying a vision for a multi-faceted major 24 prayer centre which was very impacting… but when we were there praying for the lady, and those with her, we also prayed with a wonderful person whose business on the same land is that of recycling waste. They had not met each other in some previous 50 visits, but today they found one another. Discovered that they both carried the same vision for 24 prayer… coming from very different backgrounds, but after prayer they could find one another. The reconciliation from the morning just released something extraordinary to happen. Virtually to the last person present it was one of the most amazing days.

As we prayed the person who was involved in the waste recycling received a phone call and was being offered new premises – something he was desparate for and had no success in obtaining. The premises he was offered were just right.

I cannot express in words what took place today – we touched something in the morning and within hours were witnessing the effects of this before our very eyes. 10 years ago this month I sat in a conference in sack-cloth saying that the train of convention was ceasing, it had taken us thus far, now we had to get off and find a new train – one that was shaped by relationships for territory’s sake would take us further.

That train is moving at a pace: and on it are those with a humble spirit, who know so little, but are bing joined together across old divides.

One more day to go….

This report is from Paul Wood who stayed on in Israel after Steve and the team had gone home.

Bethlehem to Egyptian Border

Team: Paul, Steve W, Adam, Nigel, Owen, Lucy and Shardi
13th-16th March, 2008

Anyone who has taken part in these crazy audacious prayer-walks, who has had their heart tenderised by the pounding of feet on roads, their soul liberated by the wide open spaces, their fears teased out by the great unknowns stretching out ahead will know that they can’t possibly come to an end. There are great markers along the way but no destinations it seems. I admit I felt a little vulnerable as I walked out of our Jerusalem hotel, leaving the big hearty rabble that had descended on Jerusalem to their breakfasts and flights home. We were a smaller, younger team (myself excepted) setting off to find our way in the world.

We bussed back to Manger Square in Bethlehem as black-clad crowds were gathering in mourning and for demonstrations, for Israeli undercover agents had assassinated four militants in Bethlehem the previous night. What a place to be born! How many times has blood run in these streets. After standing briefly to pray and acknowledge the grief and outrage around us we walked out briskly southwards as Joseph and Mary must have done as Herod’s troops closed in. We too were on our way to Egypt.

At lunchtime in a street-side café on the outskirts of Hebron, Lucy gagged on the first sip of the Arabic coffee that had just been brought to our table.

“What’s the matter Lucy?”

“I don’t know, it’s horrible, there’s something wrong with it.”

I took a tiny sip of mine and instantly spat it out onto the pavement.

“Salt, they’ve put salt in instead of sugar!” I said.

The waiter tasted it and hurried to the sink. We got apologies and fresh coffee. The kitchen boy probably got a cuff round the ears.

That day was all about mistaken identity. We couldn’t go along the settler roads because they are on high alert and our Palestinian driver could have got into serious trouble. So we threaded our way through Palestinian villages and were mistaken for Israeli settlers spying out new land. A rock was thrown, Adam was grateful it missed. In other places people retreated into their houses with alarm written across their faces. Some were insistent we turn back. At every turn we shouted Arabic greetings, and our driver, Shadi went ahead to prepare the way.

“The walkers are not Jews, they’re British, they are praying for peace!”

Progress was slow, we were weary and the sun was setting, but Shadi urged us on, “Keep going, Dhahirya is just over the next hill, just round the next corner!” He knew what we were walking for; pushing through boundaries of ethnicity and identity, stretching restrictive maps, trampling no-go areas, making space. We couldn’t have done it without him.

The next day we returned to Jerusalem and picked up again on the Israeli side of the Green Line. A couple of hours brought us into Beer Sheva as the sun was setting and everything was shutting down for Shabat. They observe it quite strictly here and it was like a ghost town as we walked in. The next day we turned our faces to the West and Egypt, through flat agricultural land bathed in warm sunshine. Roads were deserted except for families going for picnics and a convoy of bikers out for a ride.

Israel is loved on account of the Patriarchs. Egypt is loved because it gave refuge to the Son of God. But it also always stood for Israel as the symbol of reliance on human strength and wisdom rather than God’s, flesh rather than spirit. Would we trust Jesus to be protector and provider or return to the arms of Imperial protection and slavery?

Nearing the border, armoured cars rumbled up and down the road, shuttling between Gaza and a nearby army base, but it seemed we were well underneath their radars. Then, at last, the end of the road. A massive steel and concrete gate and in the distance quite clearly an Egyptian flag fluttering on a pole. We shared a few moments of intimacy with the rough warm tarmac that has been our ceaseless companion for thousands of miles. We left our thanks and prayers, loosed our loose change in a declaration of change over rigid walls and barriers and headed for home.

We whiled away the last few hours before our flights lying on a beach just outside Jaffa, feeling the warm sand between our toes and listening to the rhythm of the surf. Israeli jets sped overhead, on their way south to Gaza probably. We were only just up the road from the place where Jesus friend Peter also once lay, dozing off as he waited for his dinner. As he lay unsuspecting, revelation from the skies blasted away the boundaries of his Jewish mind-set. And the unbelievable pent-up inclusivity of the Kingdom of God came surging through the breach. The only reason any of us are here.

Paul.

Canterbury: such a historic city. Like many cities with a strong history, the city can either be locked in the past, or break free to release resources for the future. The type of city is such that new things can come but they will often quickly be assimilated into the landscape, becoming domesticated and part of the status quo.

It was such a privilege to work there and to partner with those calling for a new future. Each morning we had around 40+ people together for 3 hours for teaching and prayer, and similar numbers in the afternoon. Then we gathered each evening for prophetic input and direction.

It is not possible to write here everything that took place, the content of our time there seems very intense. This report will be fairly lengthy and I highlight just a few things then I have asked Richard Farrant to write something from an ‘insider’ perspective.

Revelation:

Colette Nelson was on the team and she had a waking vision (a not uncommon time to receive revelation) and saw a man being hanged outside a window. There were some vague memories of something like this… but when the history book was checked (thank you, Jo) there was a major event in 1659 when the mayor of the city was set upon by a mob and was hung exactly as Colette saw. This was at west gate – one of the ancient gates that is still present in the city. In that gate sits the guildhall – place of decision making, and also the masonic lodge. Before we had that revelation we had already been drawn to the gate. The first time we knelt and prayed on the ground, for only humility can pull down the powers. The second time with the knowledge of the hanging we broke bread there.

Vision from 7 years ago. I was part of a small team that went to Canterbury just after the previous archbishop resigned to pray into the new appointment. At that time I saw a cog / capstan in Canterbury from which steel cords went out in different directions. This was wound incredibly tightly so that nothing could move. It was wound in an anti-clockwise direction. I cannot say for sure where the cords went to, but certainly to Thanet, to Dover, to the South East corner of Kent, to London, to the west (a long one0, and then one in a South Westerly direction anchoring itself on the South coast.

This came back to me many times and for the first time I understood the reason for the anti-clockwise direction (I had never thought of the significance before). It was against the clock – holding time back. I believe that this was seriously undone and there has been a release of time there.

I expected two record temperatures there last summer – sometimes signs are an indication as to whether the reality they point to has come through or not… so maybe this coming summer?

In 1991 I had a vision of an oval table and around it were gathered international people. They clearly had resources, and they were together to receive downloads about the issue of relieving poverty. From the place of revelation and strategy they went to nations, had entrance at high levels. They did not come with money primarily, but with strategies for the economy. In some places in a short period of time poverty was released off certain nations. The Gospel then flowed in through this door.

I have often prayed into this, but for the first time ever I asked for that table to manifest in a specific place: Canterbury / Kent.

A couple of other points:

The University is called a University for Europe. The church has to become a church for Europe.

Community houses will rise up, monastic movements, with all-but continual training for mission are all part of the destiny of the city.

I cannot stop my part of the report without mentioning the impact that Lyndall Bywater made on us all. She is a woman dedicated to prayer. She works in many settings but particularly in the 24-7 element within the Salvation Army. A prophetic sign in the city at so many levels. She is a major pioneer with where and how she lives. And a woman of extraordinary sight. I honour a sign prophet.

I have asked Richard Farrant to write something from his perspective. He has lived in Kent all his life and moved to Canterbury seven years ago to pray in the city.

Richard writes:

It is difficult to know where to begin. For some within the city it has been a prayer for some considerable time that a team would come to stand with us to help us pray and push through on some issues. Timing is always vital and over a period of time there has been a sense of a shift both in Canterbury and in Kent as a whole so this felt like a strategic moment. There where a number of recurring themes that ran through the time together. Themes such as: the importance of hearing a new sound and rhythm in the city and the need to see the City come up to speed with what God is saying and doing with a new shape coming to the church bringing a greater release of the body in the city.

The challenge of praying somewhere like Canterbury is the sheer amount of history. In almost any history book of the UK that is opened it will not be too long before there is a mention of the city. The city has a lot of history: some good, some bad; with a lot of history that has been sown into the land there is much to be cleansed but there is also a lot to draw from.

One of the most encouraging things for me was the response of those both in the city and from Kent to come and pray with most days having upwards of 40 people during the day from a number of churches in the city as well as others coming from surrounding towns and areas.

If we were looking for a sign then I think it was not long in coming literally for within the first 2 minutes (and probably within the first 30 seconds) of starting to pray on the first morning just as we started to lift up our voices in prayer the fire alarms in the building burst into life deafening us but not deterring us from praying. The reference to the city being surrounded by a wall of fire (Zechariah 2 4-5) helped us focus our prayers into the walls and gates as well as praying for the glory of God to fill the city.

Praying in the gates seemed to be a good place to start Canterbury has 7 gates. There is a new development taking place in the city that has involved opening a new gateway onto the A2 (the road to London) and in the process of doing this the builders are rebuilding part of the city wall. One of the things that kept coming up was a vision Martin had some years ago while praying in Canterbury it was of a tightly wound spool with lines going out from Canterbury the spool was wound so tightly that nothing could move what and he understood during the time here was the spool was wound anti clockwise thus highlighting how Canterbury was holding back the timing in many places.

One of the most significant and sobering places we went to pray was the Martyrs field where there is a monument to 41 believers who where burnt for opposing the religious authorities. They were brought from across the area to the city to be burnt, the location itself lies in alignment with the cathedral a Bronze age burial site and runs out through Canterbury all the way to Glastonbury. This site is not on the tourist route and like many things in the city is hidden away.

One of the major areas of prayer focused on the relationship between Thanet which was once an island at the very tip of the south east and Canterbury Martin had brought a word last year of the importance of Thanet to Kent and the need to hold together. The two areas could not be more sharply contrasted Canterbury with it power and position and importance; Thanet so often looked down upon and at times despised by the rest of Kent but clearly the relationship and partnership between Thanet and the rest of Kent is vital. There was a very significant time of prayer and repentance into this.

Canterbury is a truly international city for so many years it has been a drawing place for the nations it was clear from the prayers and the words spoken over the city that Canterbury has an important future to play in both the training and releasing of people for mission as well as being a centre of the release of strategies to address the issues of poverty in nations. Martin spoke of a table around which people would come from across the nations to plan and strategise as to how to resolve poverty in nations.

The last day we visited the Cathedral which is a very challenging place to pray if the history of the city is intense the Cathedral encapsulates that. It was significant that as we entered on a Saturday afternoon at around 3 o’clock that Rowan Williams was conducting a service appointing new canons, maybe a symbol of a new order in the church in the city.

It is really hard to summarise how much ground we covered and areas we touched I believe it exceeded all of our expectations there is clearly a new shape coming to the church in the city and to the county of Kent as a whole. The week really felt like it released something in the city which will benefit the city but will also have an effect on the county and further afield.

Here is the report from Steve on the walk into Jerusalem…. well done we say.

Final report: Walk to Jerusalem March 4th-13th, 2008

So I sit here in front of my computer trying to find the words to encapsulate yet another incredible few days out on the road and the wonder of a journey concluded thirty two months on from setting out from Whitby. A walk that has taken us form the margins of the UK to the centre of three global religions, competing as they do for the attention and rights to the lands of Jerusalem. A walk also that has given me and many others opportunity to journey with fellow adventurers who have wandered into the depths of the Middle East, picking up themes and fault lines that echo down the generations and continue to reverberate across the power systems of the world. How is it that we have been so privileged to go and sample such wonderfully diverse cultures; to see the hand of our maker at work and to find ourselves wrapped up in a modern day story in the telling?

Walking down off the Gholan Heights into Nazareth, through the West Bank and on into Bethlehem and Jerusalem was as fitting a conclusion to this journey as anyone could hope to have. To walk the length of the West Bank was amazing. Many a soldier turned to us with a look of disbelief, one saying in complete astonishment, “what the hell are you doing here!” When we discover the doorway that is open to us then safe pathways can unfold.

I cannot in any way do justice to these few days in just a few lines. However, let me highlight four places that might just give you a glimpse into the delights that overtook us.

Nazareth:

The place where the story of Jesus caught up and overtook the story of Israel. The place where Jesus in the synagogue announced that it is time to stop looking back to that which has gone before and towards that which is to come. Nazareth; the place where the living God decided to underline that it is homes and households in hidden places that are a landing place for the kingdom. Nazareth; the place where Mary encountered the angels and found incredible grace for the most demanding of journeys that any Mother to be could go on; a journey that we were about to embark on ourselves.

Nablus

The largest city of the West Bank; a seedbed of discontent and and at the forefront of every uprising against the Israelis. Here I leave Paul Wood to take up the most remarkable of stories.

“At the end of the day we walked through a high pass overshadowed by mountains. I have rarely experienced land so cursed. The smell of death was overpowering, rotting rubbish; decaying corpses of animals and impoverished dwellings of a refugee camp on the slopes above us. Rocks had been hurled onto the road and fires had been lit. It felt overlooked by high places, ancient places of sacrifice and idolatry, a place of powers gloating over the cursed land and human debris. Our mandate was not to address any such places directly but to walk through. As the skies darkened and the clouds gathered so we concluded the day on our knees, shedding ourselves of all pride in that place of gloating and death.

We had finished on the outskirts of Nablus, known as Shechem in old testament times. The following day we realised that we had walked under the shadow of Mt Ebal, the mountain from which the curses for disobedience were proclaimed.

Shechem was such a significant place for Israel and for covenant. It was the place to which Abraham came when he arrived in Canaan; the place where he first built an altar and where he was promised this land. Even further back in history, under the Canaanites, it was known for its temple to Baal Berit, the Lord of the Covenant.

No surprise therefore that Joshua brought Israel there first, to renew the covenant on entering the promised land. In accordance with the instructions given by Moses, Israel gathered at Shechem, six tribes pronouncing curses from Mt Ebal to the north, and six pronouncing blessings from Mt Gerizim to the south.

For a place that had been such a covenant marker for the land and the people that lived on it, it is easy to understand it being a fountainhead for cursing when covenant is broken and the alien and the orphan is not catered for. Israel’s land was always meant to speak about their spiritual condition. This place shouts loud and clear.”

The Mount of Olives

Here we concluded the walk, wanting to gather in a place that man had not built on, and within which there lingered some of the olive trees from the times of Jesus. Walking into Jerusalem through the Dung Gate and out through the Lion Gate we sat down therefore on the slopes of the Mount of Olives. As we began to pray so a young child of about ten started to throw rocks at us. They bounced harmlessly as his range fell short. However, one of the team noted a connection with other moments in the walk when children had gathered around us, laughing and smiling as if they had sight of the angels that accompanied us. This time however, the throwing of rocks seems totally appropriate. It seemed the city itself had come to give its own welcome to our small band of prophets. The words of Jesus echoed round our heads; “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often have I wanted to gather your children together.” Once more, in the most unlikely of circumstances, we knew we were on time, and in place. We drew encouragement even as the stones fell on the ground, prior to a wonderful peace descending upon us.

A Bus Stop near the Dead Sea.

The final memory I give over to one of the team who took himself off to the Dead Sea for the last few hours of spare time. Getting into conversation with a fellow traveller he discovered that he was actually a relative of one of the Jewish settler students who, just a week ago had been gunned down and murdered. He found his heart touched as he began to connect with the other side of the story that our journey through the West Bank had kept hidden; that of the Jews. As I reflected on this so a quote came to mind of Prime Minister Olmert. “We are tired of fighting, we are tired of being courageous, we are tired of winning, we are tired of defeating our enemies. We want that we will be able to live in an entirely different environment of relations with our enemies.”

Fear grips this land and only the shalom peace of the Master can break the cycle of victim and persecutor that torments Palestinian and Jew alike. Our hearts were tenderised therefore to this most unique of tribes that live on the face of the earth.

So this then is our journey. No earth shattering conclusions. No dramatic manifestos; rather just a simple dedication of prayer as we have risen to the sight of the open road and the faint whiff of adventure. Once more I find myself saying to all those who walked, we had no right to get enjoy being together as much as we did. No right to travel as safely as we have done, and no right to pray anything other than the prayers of those who are not right.

Lingering in the airport at Tel Aviv a smile came to my face as I lifted me head to the destination board. Directly underneath our flight back home to Manchester was a flight destined for Cairo. We had left behind a team already tracking south from Bethlehem to Hebron, and from there to the border, there after Cairo. It seems there could be further adventures to follow!

Steve Lowton