Commission Prayer - Event Recap
The last time we had met in this way, many were absent due to Covid, so we were eager to return to Woking and turn our hearts heavenward to pray for our people, our movement, our mission and our world.
Leadership Teams
In the opening session John Groves (@johngrovesuk) encouraged us from 1 Thessalonians 1:22 to live with an eschatological awareness, recognising the times and seasons we are living through, but then urging us from Ephesians 5:8-10 to persevere and keep living as children of the light. It is increasingly important for us to fully engage with the events unfolding in the wider world, but not to despair as those who are in the darkness, but to let our gospel light shine, and to let our lives please the Lord.
From that exhortation John led us into praying and prophesying for Guy and Heather Miller (UK) and Vinu and Julie Paul (India) Who apostolically lead the Commission family of churches. We also prayed for the UK Team (Steve Petch, Tim Blaber, and Chris Kilby) There was a powerful sense of God’s presence and his gifts, particularly prophecy actively helped us to apply John’s word with power.
Praise, Prayer & Prophecies
In session 2 Guy Miller set the tone for our prayer and praise by describing the roles and gifts of the team that he is working most closely with in the UK. We were due to have Steve Brading from the Catalyst movement bringing a prophetic word, but due to illness he was sadly unable to join us. He did manage to have a long phone call with John Groves who delivered the prophecy, and it led us into a really rich time of prayer and praise, with another flurry of powerful prophetic words for the movement. God spoke about us being raised in profile through the untethering of hot air balloons in the nation. He spoke of our voice becoming louder as different coloured leads are plugged in bringing greater amplification of our voice. He spoke of a movement with leaders that would be characterised by unity and wisdom. He spoke of the parts of a stained glass window coming together to display something of his glory, and of the UK team being like Musketeers, with a profound loyalty to the king, a deep care for the poor, and a lot of swashbuckling adventure!
As one of the team being prayed for and prophesied over I (Chris Kilby) found it a little embarrassing to be once again in the ‘hot seat’, but I know that we all also found it hugely encouraging to be in the Spirit together, and to be strengthened and affirmed by the prayers of brothers and sisters from across the movement. We are hugely grateful and humbled by your love and encouragement.
John Groves (@johngrovesuk) sharing a prophetic word from Steve Brading (Catalyst)
Jubilee+
In the third session it was such a joy to be led by Natalie Williams (@natwillnatter) from Jubilee +. With a wealth of experience, and no shortage of passion, she expertly taught and encouraged us to see our churches move beyond projects that will serve the poor, to being communities characterised by a deeper ethic. Our social justice is not to be a department of church life, but at its very core. We are to make disciples from every background, and poverty and justice are discipleship issues that we increasingly must see as ‘normal church life’, rather than ministries for the experts.
In leading us prayerfully through Isaiah, Natalie applied all that she had taught, and I know it will bear gospel fruit in the years ahead. We are hugely grateful to God for Natalie and her gift, and her willingness to travel and inspire us during a busy Jubilee + schedule.
Natalie Williams (@natwillnatter), Chief Executive of Jubilee+ being prayed for by Guy Miller (@GuyAMiller).
East Hub
In Session 4 Tim Blaber introduced us to the East Hub. This was a great time to get to know one another better, and it was a joy to hear updates from the churches in Tim’s Hub and to pray for their leaders and their mission. These moments both unite us and help us to press on together. They help us to genuinely be a family together on a mission.
Commission Staff Team
Steve Petch and Ben Welchman also helped us to pray for some of the leadership needs across Commission, and to pray for the Commission Staff Team, who not only worked together to put on an excellent couple of days, but who recently delivered the UK Leaders Conference brilliantly, and who are serving us as a movement with real grace and skill. We thank God for each of them!
After a simple meal to break our fast, we rested ahead of day 2.
Prophetic Dreams
Overnight God was still at work, and in separate locations, Guy and Heather Miller both had prophetic dreams, so we began day 2 worshipping God and hearing those dreams.
Heather’s dream was of a small car, overloaded, going uphill, with only battery-powered hand torches for headlights. It was a picture of us attempting to progress the movement without progressing in prayer. It was a picture of trying to achieve something with only human effort. It was an encouragement to deepen and strengthen our personal and corporate prayer life.
Guy’s dream was of four snakes on a river bank. The first one being, safely removed by someone else, then Guy removing the second. We have had several interpretations of this dream, so it is one we will be praying to as the UK team and trusting God that he will help us discern and act in faith in both understanding and acting on God’s word to us.
As we continued to pray and worship, God was continuing to speak powerfully, and Dave Lockyer (Eastleigh UK), brought a word about this being a ‘Troas Moment’ (Acts 16:8), highlighting the evangelisation of Europe and the beginning of a new missionary journey for Commission. Tim Blaber also had a vivid prophetic picture of a young girl playing a small keyboard in her home, who was then presented with a grand piano and told that she would no longer be playing in her front room, but in the concert hall.
These words resonated with all that God had been saying the previous day and pointed us towards a future that is characterised by greater profile, further mission, and more gospel influence in the nation and the nations. Lord, help us to steward well all that you have placed into our hands for your glory!
Southern Europe
We then very appropriately went into earnestly praying for our work in Southern Europe. We heard from Kevin Bartlett in Madrid and Andre Shore in Porto. And prayed for breakthroughs in their situations and the nations of Spain and Portugal. We also heard from Chris Kilby about some emerging works and relationships in Italy and prayed for those, including a small conference planned for June 2023 called ‘Insieme’ (together), which will take place near Rome.
We always like to bring a focus to our proclamation of the gospel at these times of prayer, and Mark Landreth Smith (@MLandrethSmith) so helpfully led us in to praying for our Alpha courses, and praying for evangelistic breakthrough, whatever size our church may be. It was great to hear some stories of lives being transformed through Commission churches. We also took time to update and pray for our Commission Festival next summer. We are so thankful to Darren Forsdyke (Woking UK) who is working with the Commission Team and an external events company to deliver what we know will be an excellent time together for the whole Commission Family. By the first price break there were already over 2000 people booked in, which is a great indicator of how zealous we all are to re-gather in Somerset in August. We were also able to pray for Becky Peacock and Si Munsie who will be heading up the children and youth respectively at the festival. It’s going to be amazing! Finally in this session we prayed for the CST event led by Chris Kimbangi (Guildford UK). With a great line up of speakers and seminars this is sure to be an excellent event for the younger adults of Commission.
Back to Basics
Finally, Guy and Heather sent us out with their ‘Back to Basics’ message urging us to continue in the disciplines of prayer and fasting. Heather was so honest about the temptation to live ‘prayerlessly’ and the acknowledgement of the shock we sometimes feel when God actually answers our prayers! She also lifted our eyes to the reality that prayer acknowledges that God is in control of everything, and we are in control of very little. She so helpfully highlighted that prayer brings peace, thankfulness and is a great witness to others. Guy encouraged us to fast in order that we might be reminded of our appetites and lead our churches humbly in order to gain the greatest reward.
At the end of the two days, my overwhelming reflection was that the nations may be in turmoil, there certainly seem to be darker and more difficult days on the horizon, but the Church of Jesus, wielding the mighty mandate of the gospel is always God’s solution to see light dispel the darkness, and that he has called us together at this time in order to raise our profile and expand our mission that he may be glorified in the UK and around the globe.
