I recently spent a Saturday in a smoky warehouse. joined hundreds of young people in praying for this nation. PrayerStorm in Manchester.
It was humbling to be part of something so simple. A girl at the front shared, "We hold a small but powerful key. The key is prayer. Prayer to the Lord God Almighty in our lives. And it unlocks the biggest doors and cages of captivity. As we pray together, we unlock the gates of heaven on earth."
We prayed against slavery, sex trafficking and a culture of porn. We prayed for the leaders and opinion formers of our world; got on our knees for God to use media city in Salford for his glory. Together we petitioned the God of Heaven to change the tide in our schools so that kids would be drawn to Jesus.
Then we prayed for the universities of the UK. It was unlike anything I am used to. Miriam and I shared with those present about the current state of play in the uni scene. The fact that only 1% have accepted that Jesus loves and died for them. That we are starting to see encouraging signs of growth in student mission. Then something kicked off...
We got the guys to cry out in desperation for the students who, without Jesus, are in a hopeless situation. Our brothers and sisters whose future is bleak without the great message we carry within us. And they began to shout. They got louder and louder. Eventually every person in the warehouse was completely screaming their heads off to God for their generation. It went on for about 10 minutes.
It was the closest thing I've seen to when it say "shout it out and shout it aloud" in the Psalms. It is common in the bible, but not in our churches. Why is that do you think?
In my opinion, the fact that each year there are millions of students drifting past our churches, through our friendship networks, and out the other side without meeting the living Jesus that lives in us - is worth shouting about. Let's get crying. Lets take this mournful fact to our God and see what he says.
