Changing history through prayer

When I graduated from seminary in Toronto in 1977, God spoke clearly to me about going to England. The immediate purpose was to do a PhD in New Testament studies, but I knew there was more to it than that. The “more than that” turned out to be more than I thought. This is how it happened. For two years, I worked with students in Durham University in northern England, as well as with my local church while working on my degree. The third and final year of my funding approached, and I was faced with a choice. What was I to do and where was I to go if God wanted me to stay in the United Kingdom?

At the same time, I made a good but sometimes annoying friend -- the kind of friend who, like the widow in Jesus’ parable, pesters her opponent until she gets what she wants. The “widow” in my case came in an unlikely form, a very proper upper class English gentleman called Robert Ward. Robert’s “problem” was he was convinced of the need to rise early and seek God. His early morning prayers occasionally aroused some resentment among the slumbering theological students in adjacent rooms, but he persisted.

Robert got the idea that we should start an early morning prayer meeting on the university campus, and furthermore, that he and I should lead it. That presented a problem for me, as sometimes I didn’t go to bed much before Robert got up! The fact is, and I admit it, I hated getting up in the morning.

But Robert had a plan. I needed a ride from Durham to London, and he was heading that way with space to spare. Once I was aboard, I became captive to a four hour harangue on the necessity of early rising if one was to be in right relationship with the Lord, and that an early morning prayer meeting had to be established, and that he and I had to do it. Like the unjust judge in the parable, I relented. Did I mention that Robert had previously been enjoying his profession as a barrister (a British term for top lawyer!) in London? Now he was also judge and jury. I was placed on the stand, cross-examined, convicted and thrown into the prison of early rising.

At the beginning of the next academic year, we received permission to use the thousand year old Norman chapel deep in the bowels of Durham Castle. It was completely sound proof, and we could pray and sing as loud as we wanted as early as we wanted. What happened astounded me. Within a short time, we had so many young men and women crowding into our meeting at 7 am every morning to seek the face of God, we had to find a second location in another college. The meetings continued six days a week for the entire academic year, with an average of 100 students attending. Many were converted as a result of the change in these students’ lives. God did miracles.

And in the midst of it, something else happened. I began to fast and pray about my own future. And he spoke to me words that changed my life: “I am calling you to stay in this city and found a church.” I can still remember exactly where I was that day in January 1980, when I heard the voice of God so clearly it was like another person speaking to me. What happened after that is another story in itself. Suffice to say that nine months later, Emmanuel Church Durham was born. In the years since, churches all over the world have been planted directly and indirectly from that base. Thousands have come to Christ. Leaders of stature have been raised up. All I did was plant the seed. Through many others, God brought the harvest. I am privileged to visit Emmanuel every year. It is still a dynamic church, for many years led by my good friend Alan Bell, winning people of all types and ages to Christ, and a vital witness in one of the great university cities of England. As this is being written, it is planting out another church just a few miles down the road.  And what about Robert Ward?  He went on to plant a pioneering church called St Luke's at the edge of the university campus in the city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where prayer is still a prominent part of all that is happening there.

Have you got the important point in all this? History is changed when men and women begin to seek God. I saw that when I visited the Outer Hebrides (again with Robert, and a second time with Elaine). I heard how a small group of Presbyterian folk sought God through the night hours and vowed to stay in his presence till he brought revival, which he did. I have never felt the presence of God more in a geographical location than I felt it there. The agenda of every prayer meeting and church service we attended included beseeching God to send revival again.

Anything can happen when you begin to pray. Prayer is the most important thing a Christian can do. It is more effective than a thousand ministry programs or strategies. It is the lifeblood of the church. That is the testimony God gave me in 1980, and he hasn’t changed his ways since. The most effective way you can change history is the same way I did.  Pray. Why don’t you try it?

Your labour is never in vain

In the spring of 1980, my good friends Robert and Alice Ward were married at St Mark’s Church Kennington in central London. As an aside to this story, Alice’s grandfather, Lord Eccles, was responsible for founding the British Library located today near King’s Cross station in London, which I visited in 2014. It houses Codex Sinaiticus, the oldest complete copy of the New Testament dating from only three hundred years after Christ. When I saw it, I was so moved I began to weep. Beside it lay a fragment of one of the ancient Oxyrhyncus papyri with the opening words of Revelation on it, inscribed not much more than 100 years after the apostle John  first wrote down his vision. How people can question the veracity of the New Testament in the face of thousands of textual witnesses like this is beyond me! But back to the story. Robert and Alice’s wedding reception was held in the House of Lords, part of the edifice known as the Palace of Westminster, which houses the British Parliament, the most prominent feature of which is Big Ben. Following the reception, I stayed overnight with an architect and his wife, who recounted to me their sad story of being married for nearly twenty years without any children. That was the first time I ever prayed for a childless couple, and nine months later their baby was born. That set me on a lifelong journey of praying for couples and seeing babies born, the two most recent of which at the time of writing are just a few months old.

The following morning I had the honour of preaching (for the first time in my life) in an Anglican church. St Mark’s Kennington was at that time one of the great spiritual centres of London. The vicar (pastor) was a very godly man, Sir Nicholas Rivett-Carnac, who had previously had a distinguished career in the military. I asked him for permission to pray for the sick, in line with a word I felt I had received from the Lord to “preach the gospel and heal the sick.” He took a chance on me! Following the message, I gave an invitation for anyone who wanted prayer. To my astonishment, scores of people came forward. I wound up praying for people well into the afternoon and did not leave the church until around 2 pm.

Here is the point of my story. I was at that time in the early stages of founding Emmanuel Church in the cathedral city of Durham in northern England. I (and those with me) experienced vociferous opposition from local pastors, who felt our intention was to steal their sheep rather than see the kingdom advanced. This opposition, along with some severe spiritual warfare we encountered in relation to other matters, had left me at a very low ebb. In fact, I felt all I had done was for nothing. One morning I was sitting at my desk, reading Scripture. I came to 1 Cor. 15:58, which reads, “Therefore my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain." The words leapt out at me from the page, and God encouraged me greatly. Life flooded back into my spirit. And at that moment, the mail arrived. When I went to fetch it, I found a letter addressed to me. It was from a young lawyer who had been at that service at St Mark’s many months before. She wrote in the letter how she had been suffering from clinical depression so severe she had had to give up her practice and for the most part remain housebound. Somehow that morning friends had managed to bring her to church. She came forward for prayer. When I laid hands on her and prayed, she was instantly and completely healed. She had been able to resume work and had entered into a relationship with a young man she hoped would lead to marriage.

Whenever in my cycle of Scripture readings I come to 1 Cor. 15:58, the emotions of that day, the letter and its contents come back into my mind. We can experience times in our walk with God when we seem to hit rock bottom. Like the Psalmist, we cry out for deliverance, and sometimes God does not show up in the way or at the time we want. The apostle Paul himself appears to have suffered times of desperation we would probably describe today as some form of depression, where the “sentence of death” was passed on him (2 Cor. 1:9). His struggles with the Corinthian Christians, documented particularly in the first seven chapters of 2 Corinthians, are a testament to that. Yet even in our affliction, God’s comfort overflows. In fact, if my reading of 2 Corinthians 1 is correct, it may well be that it is only through affliction that the greatest, deepest and most powerful comfort truly comes.

His comfort came to me that day. The letter could have come and brought encouragement at any time in the months since the woman had been healed. But the fact is it arrived on my doorstep moments after God spoke those powerful words to me through Scripture. If God had turned up visibly along with the letter and said, “I told you so!” it could hardly have had a more powerful effect. It often comes back to me when times are tough.

I pray God will bring a measure of His comfort and encouragement to you through my story. Maybe it will land on your doorstep at just the right time!

Katie Overbeek: EP project

God has given Elaine and I eight wonderful children. All of them are gifted in different ways. We have sought, as best we can, to support each of them in their own journey to develop the character and gifts God has given them. Katie is our oldest daughter. She is married to Josh, and is the mother of our wonderful grandson Joseph. When she was 9 years old, she was prayed for by our friend Marc Dupont, whom many of you may know from his prophetic ministry in Toronto and around the world. Marc said she would be a Psalmist to the nations. Many years later, it was our privilege to give Marc a copy of the first CD she recorded, which was very kindly produced at cost by her friends David Kuwabara and Nathan Finochio, both skilled professionals based in New York City. They are now planning to work with Katie on producing a second project, which will be done to the highest standards. Katie has always had a gift to produce powerful and Biblical lyrics to accompany great music. I think that is so important when so much of what we sing today can be superficial. I am sure God’s desire is to use her music truly to glorify him. As parents, we continue to watch and pray as God develops his purposes in Katie, Josh and Joseph. At the age of 2, Joseph is already singing along with his mom. Our desire is for the knowledge of God to be passed down from generation to generation. Our part in this process now for the most part is to pray and encourage them as best we can. As long as we live, we will never stop being parents, whether to our own children, or to others in the body of Christ.

Our hope is that many others will be touched by Katie’s music. These are not days in which we need more Christian ditties.  These are days in which we need more musicians like Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley.

Here is a link to the project. Thanks for your prayers and support.

https://vimeo.com/134053977

Katie Overbeek: EP project