PRAY FOR SCOTLAND

This was a Prophetic word given by Steve Witt at Southside on 5th October 2007.
In light of recent events, it makes so much more sense but we need to pray that the blessings associated with the word will come to fruition. “I believe that God is about to send a major earthquake to Iceland, actually a volcano, it’s going to erupt, He spoke to me, and said it was going to be the 8th most powerful volcano in Iceland’s history. … It may not be for a while, but it will happen and it’s going to happen as a sign and when it comes there’s also going to be earthquakes that are going to hit Scotland - they may not be huge, but they’re going to be enough to put in the front page of the newspapers - “Scotland is shaken” and it’s going to be a sign to you as a nation, particularly the Christians that God is about to unearth something big. That something that has been hidden and has been a mystery of prayers of saints for hundreds of years even over a thousand are going to begin to birth in this area, and could be a combination of the whole Hebrides thing, and Shetlands, and John Knox, and many, many prayers over the years are going to come forth at one time. God is going to sweep this country, it’s going to be like a flash flood- it’s going to come quickly, it’s going to be fast and it will be over quickly but the evidence of it will live for many years - and it’s going to be up to the people that discern and understand what is happening what will happen in your area. Here’s what the Lord is speaking for this area of Ayr, that God wants this area to be a place of refuge. That He’s going to raise up mighty works in this area, there’s already great works in this area, but I’m talking about mighty works. Churches that are 100 will be lured into larger numbers, 4 and 500. Churches that are 2 or 300 will be tempted to become churches of 1000. A lot of Scottish people they look around and go “well God’s not going to do anything big here, it just hasn’t happened that way before” He is offering something major to those whose hearts have been expanded to contain it. May you know the day of your visitation, may you be like sons of Issachar. They just didn’t discern the times, but they knew what to do. ”

Word from Barbara Jenkinson – 17 November 2009
A Season of fire & rivers of fire
• I saw a picture of planet earth with little fires over parts of it, then as the wind blew these fires spread – at pace.
• I then saw a picture of a ‘blacksmith’s furnace - there was extreme heat – metal was put in the fire to be softened and then removed and hammered into shape – the process was repeated several times - an incredible sharp sword was created.
• Finally I saw rivers of fire (lava) flowing across the nation. This is a time for the rivers of fire to flow, a time for the fulfilment of Jean Darnel’s prophecy (1967) (see extract given below)
Implications
• We are in a season of change – the wind is blowing, the fire is spreading at an accelerated pace.
• God is sounding a renewed wake-up call. In the spirit the Shofar is being blown over key cities.
• There is a renewed call to Holiness and a Warrior call to take up the sword (Joel 3 ‘changing ploughshares into swords…’) For many of us, the Holy Spirit wants to change our perception of what is important. A key part of this is changing our focus from ‘personal provision’ to that of expanding the Kingdom. (Involves free choice & sacrifice.)
• God raising up a ‘grass-root’s’ army and our Scottish ‘soulish identity’ is being challenged. We need to put aside the old identity of ‘oppressed victim’ and grasp the identity of ‘sonship’. To discard inappropriate mindsets (e.g. competition, orphan spirit) and embrace a Kingdom mentality. To be prepared to ‘give away’ our ministry / anointing / knowledge to see others raised up & released.
• ‘Empires’ will continue to be dismantled (as lava flows individual stones become part of the river).
• In this season we will see Scotland & the UK evangelising Europe & other parts of the world with increased pace & power. This will be accomplished by an explosion of the prophetic. In 2010 we will see an increased number of ‘schools’ & ‘ministries’ where many ‘ordinary’ people will be released into their prophetic giftings and the ministry of Jesus taken outside the church walls.

Enemy strategies (to counteract this ‘explosion’)
• increased persecution from those with a traditional / religious / orphan mindset – There is a requirement to embrace grace, love, forgiveness and to deny partnership with mindsets that would cause disunity and isolation.
• ‘subtle deception’ – including seeking manifestations, gifts and experiential encounters over truth and intimacy. God’s word & discernment – are key.
• Encouraging people to operate outside their lines of authority – will cause division and discouragement
• Sense of fatigue / tiredness – requirement to maintain momentum, God is releasing a clarion call to ‘keep pressing in / to keep going’

Covenant / Ownership issues
God is calling us to be careful of the covenant relationships we embrace. There is a requirement to be released from inappropriate covenants & to realign ourselves with Kingdom covenants. In particular this relates to covenants governing our relationships and our finance.

Political / Economic issues
• Experiencing God’s goodness is not dependent on the economy. Gen 26 – Isaac – planted during a famine and same year received 100 fold.
• World’s system’s – failing, God’s systems still work.
• God is accelerating His purposes in the earth through a global recession. There is a war over the transfer of wealth. This includes the harvest of people.
• In this season provision will be connected to revelation & intimacy with the Holy Spirit.
• Much of the current recession is driven by an oil crisis. The first oil crisis is mentioned in Mat 26 – where the Kingdom of Heaven is likened to 10 virgins – 5 had oil, 5 hadn’t. v12 ‘I know you not’ Key – intimacy with God.

Dr. Barbara Jenkinson (Director Light & Life)

Extract from Jean Darnell’s prophecy - 1967
fires were burning from the top of Scotland to Land’s End on the tip of Cornwall. Lightning streaked downward from the sky above me. I saw it touch down with flashing swiftness, exploding each of the fires into streams of light. Like lava they burned their fiery path downward from the top of Scotland to Land’s End. The waters did not stop this, but the fires spread across the seas to Ireland and to Europe.
“I will penetrate the darkness with a visitation of my power. With lightning swiftness I will release the power of my Spirit through a renewed people who have learned to be led of the Spirit. They will explode with a swiftness that will touch every part of the society of Britain…
“And the streams of fire into Europe, Lord?” My mind seemed to see an army of all types of people moving into the continent with a compassionate ministry. This ministry was not mass meetings, led by powerful personalities, preaching to spectators, but participating, caring communities involved with one another at grass roots level, sharing the love of God everywhere.”

Pray5

This is a new initiative aimed at young people from the ages of 11-16. It involves praying for 5 friends for 5 minutes (1 minute each), 5 days a week for 5 weeks. Then share what has happened with others that are doing this too. The result is often that God has done something in someone’s life or opened a door and changed something in that person’s understanding of God and the Christian Faith. The 5 friends should be 3 contemporaries and 1 older and 1 younger friend. Already Firestarters have embraced this initiative and at the recent Strictly Come Praying event held in the Inchyra Grange Hotel 400 leaflets were distributed to the young people who attended. It has also been introduced in local churches in some areas.
This leaflet is available from Pray for Scotland and also can be downloaded here: pray-five-flyer

“THE BIG IF”

‘The Big IF’………Transforming our nation together - through prayer.
On 17 September and 10 December over 80 leaders of churches and ministries from all over Scotland met to consider ‘The Big IF….’ (2 Chron. 7:14).
The meetings were jointly hosted by the Directors of Pray for Scotland, Alpha, Evangelical Alliance and CARE for Scotland, who came together in a personal response to a call for prayer for the nation from one of Scotland’s leading businessmen. The purpose of the meetings was not to present a grand ‘master plan’ but to present a heart-felt vision for prayer and to seek God, through the responses of those present, as to whether this was indeed ‘of Him’ or just another ‘good idea’.

Pete Grieg, who has been used by God to found the international 24/7 prayer movement and who now also heads prayer and intercession for all Alpha courses, spoke at both meetings on developing intimacy with God and ‘Can a nation be changed?’ His talks are available from: www.thetalkofscotland.org/thebigif
It was recognised that there is already a ‘rising tide’ of prayer all over the country - but much more is needed. Leaders were encouraged, and challenged, to increase their own intimacy with God, and from that place to lead their people into a deeper relationship with Him. There was an exciting and encouraging degree of unity across denominations and between church leaders and leaders of ministries.
The consensus was that this was God’s timing for the nation, but the response had in the main to be ‘bottom-up’ rather than ‘top-down’, i.e. the Christians in each community, village, town and city should work out locally how best they could participate. It was felt that a key factor would be the ‘coming together’ from time to time of folk from different church backgrounds to pray for their areas and the nation.
Those present were invited to take what they had heard back to their churches, colleagues, ministries and begin to work out what it could mean for them in their communities. There were also some specific suggestions that received general support:

Synchronise your watches!
Set your watch or mobile phone alarm for 12 noon daily, or in some other way remind yourself, and as near to 12 noon as you can, stop what you are doing for a couple of minutes and pray the Lord’s Prayer. Please pass this on to all your church and contacts. This is a simple but powerful way we can connect throughout the nation. Can you imagine the effect if all over the nation around the same time each day thousands of us are joined in the same prayer, petitioning the Throne Room of heaven with - ‘Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven’!!!

Pray for Scotland have set up a Facebook page so folk can sign up for this and in the first 3 days around 200 have joined up here: PfS Facebook page.

24/7 prayer for the nation throughout 2010
Pete Greig mentioned this idea at the second meeting and there was an immediate positive response from several ministers/pastors present. The idea is that churches ’sign up’ for 1 day, several days or a week of prayer - 24 hours each day in 1 hour slots - covering the whole of 2010.
The first 2 weeks in January are already filled, as are other weeks throughout the year but it would be great if more than 1 church was praying each week (or parts of a week). A dedicated webpage has been set up where you can sign up your church, your prayer group, for your chosen dates here: scotlandprayer2010

Thank you for joining us in Pray for Scotland to cover January.
The vision is still to cover 2010 with 24-7-365 days of prayer for our Nation of Scotland. Our hope & aim is to have a minimum of 52 Churches and mission organisations signed up. Check out the calendar here http://scotlandprayer2010.org/#/calendar/4539981852 for all the information! Join with us in praying for this wonderful opportunity for Scotland - an unbroken year of prayer. We believe continual prayer will be a key step forward for our Nation!
When you are ready we invite you to catch the wave!
1. Pray with us in giving thanks for this exciting challenge.
2. Pray for momentum to build throughout 2010 and beyond!
3. Join in any of the prayer weeks running throughout 2010.
4. Start your own 24 -7 prayer day/week/weekend.
5. Tell others about it

St Andrew’s Day - 30 November 2010
This will be the second national focus for prayer. We will keep you advised as ideas and plans progress.

It is not our intention to set up yet another ‘organisation’ to co-ordinate this initiative. There will be news and publicity sent out through our networks from time to time but the primary goal is for the local church to mobilise in prayer however, wherever and whenever it suits each congregation, fellowship or group – knowing that wherever they are and whatever you are doing you are part of a national prayer momentum developing throughout 2010 and beyond!

Our God is faithful! And prayer changes things! So may we all take this opportunity to make 2010 a year of prayer for this nation!
If you have any thoughts, suggestions, comments on any of the above, please email us at: admin@prayforscotland.org.uk

Leaders:
Jean Black - Pray for Scotland, Paul Davie - Alpha Scotland, Fred Drummond - Evangelical Alliance, Bill Baird - Care for Scotland,

4DVD set now available:

Recorded with our guest speaker Alvin Vander-Griend at our “Spreading the Vision” day at Stirling Baptist Church on the 6th June 2009. It also includes a session for leaders held at the Inchyra Hotel on Friday 5th June. This is now available from Pray for Scotland. Please contact admin@prayforscotland.org.uk to request a set. Priced at £10.00 per set.

Our “Summer of Prayer” E-letter series was aslo taken from one of Alvin’s books: “How do I pray for my Neighbours?” and this series can be found here.

The Lighthouse vision continues to spread across Scotland and many more visits will be made by our team throughout the Autumn and into 2010. Please contact us if this is something that you would like to know more about.

Please join us in praying for Scotland