April 2004

You will receive power

'But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.' (Acts 1:8)

I imagine Jesus’ disciples must have been tremendously excited when they heard those words from his lips. Certainly, Luke took the trouble to record them at the beginning of Acts and a little later tells us, 'They all joined together constantly in prayer…' (Acts 1:14) presumably for the fulfilment of the promise in verse 8.

As I see it, Acts 1:8 is one of Jesus’ main 'how to’s' relating to his Great Commission, containing everything we need to know about our objective as his Church and our power source when it comes to the achievement of that objective.

Certainly, it is an inspirational verse when it comes to our prayers and I can only imagine these words must have been uppermost in the minds of the disciples as they waited (and prayed) together in the upper room in Jerusalem.

The natural human response would have be to brainstorm and plan before any great mission or undertaking began and perhaps they did some of that as well but Luke chooses to tell us that they all joined together constantly in prayer while they waited!

They had far less resources available to them than the Church does today and they must have known that there was no natural resource that could possibly equip them to begin to make a dent in their task.

So they found themselves dependent on the promise and power of God and, in terms of the outcome, we know they must have been engaged in their activity (of praying) with an intensity and passion that is hard to imagine. That, I believe, is what we again need to see today.

I am delighted to have been a part of a recent event when the type of prayer described was in evidence. I am referring to the Festival of Life event organised by The Redeemed Christian Church of God at ExCel, Docklands on Friday March 26.

The place was absolutely heaving with about 16,000 people involved throughout the night and there were some dynamic times of prayer and worship amongst other vibrant activity. It is so good to see there is a large Christian army working in London of which we know relatively little. Perhaps the Lord has far more of his people in and around this city than any of us from our own individual perspectives can appreciate.

I sincerely hope it will be possible to unite and combine our strength as different Christian streams and churches in and around London more and more in the days ahead. Why should we not fill one of the major football stadiums with Christians of every background standing together in a gigantic celebration dedicated to Jesus and the transformation of this city? And if we can do it once, let’s repeat the exercise until the objective is fulfilled!

Jeremy Jennings

This article is an edited version of one first published in Focus, April 2004. Reproduced here with permission.