Vineyard Canada Prayer & Fasting January 20- 30, 2021
Day Five and Six: An Apocalyptic Moment - A Call to Revelation & Surrender
As we journey through the fast, we are continuing to ask the Holy Spirit to ground us. As He increases our trust, we are able to grow in our understanding of what it means to be truly His. From this place of intimacy and nearness, we can become vulnerable and reveal our true selves, surrendering our hearts to Him and journeying together in authentic community.
There is so much happening around us presently that can only be described as Apocalyptic.
This word is often associated with chaos and momentous unsettling. It's etymology comes from the Greek word apokaluptein which actually means to "uncover or reveal." There is something about seasons of great pressure that brings to the surface of our lives areas that need exposure to the Light. This truth stirs to mind the reflection found in Hebrews 12, that the shaking of the heavens and the earth is ultimately to reveal, "so that what cannot be shaken may remain." Rather than this putting us in a position of hesitancy and fear, the injunction within the text is that because "we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe for our God is a consuming fire."
One of the parables of Christ also captures this theme. The rains come, the floods rage, the winds blow, and the foundations of the house are revealed. Have we, and are we, building on the Rock? (Matthew 7:24-27) It is worth noting that Jesus equates wisdom with building a solid foundation in this text. So often over these last couple of years we have recognized our great need for wisdom more than answers. As we lean into this posture of being tested by the Lord, let's listen for the wise way to walk from here.
David in Psalm 139:23-24 gives us some great language to express the heart cry for sanctification and transformation.
"Search me God and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting."
As we wait, pray and listen in this place of examen, we allow the Spirit to "reveal."
- Where in your personal journey do you sense the Spirit's revealing work? What does it look like for you to engage with God in this metanoia or repentance work in your life?
- As we listen to and discern the Spirit's voice across our Vineyard family in this season of praying together, what do we sense the Spirit speaking to us specifically in this time of revealing.
We encourage you to continue to send in those contributions that you sense are of a wider application to
Our common prayer by Walter Brueggemann
You in our past: gracious
steadfast
reliable
long-suffering
You are a mouthful on the lips of our grandparents.
The hard part is you in our present
for after the easy violations we readily acknowledge
then come the darker, hidden ones:
aware that appearance does not match reality
aware that walk is well behind talk;
aware that we are enmeshed in cruelty systems, well hidden but defining;
and we have no great yearning
to be delivered from them
Forgive us, for the ways in which we are bewitched
too settled, at ease in false places.
You in our present: gracious
steadfast
reliable
long-suffering
We are in the shadows asking you to do what you have done;
to be whom you have been
that we may do what we have never dared dream
be whom we have never imagined
free, unencumbered, un anxious, joyous, obedient....
Yours, and not ours.
Amen
We have provided a link to some musical worship by Nathan & Charis Rousu, pastors of the Harvest Vineyard in Edmonton, AB
May the Spirit of Christ free us and fill us with hope as we pray!
One of the words we have been corporately hearing is that through this season the Lord is revealing the contents of hearts. In line with Psalm 139:23-24 we pray, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."
One of the ways the content of our heart is revealed is to see what is in the heart of the Father and ask, "Does my heart look like His?" We chose this song 'Slow to Anger' as part of our prayer as it reveals both something beautiful about the Father and wisely instructive for us to repent and follow as His children, especially in times of multiple points of great tension and unrest.
Nathan & Charis Rousu
