QUESTION: Will you commit to pray for the next nine days for God s kingdom to come to the United Kingdom with fresh power?

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1 Friday 11th May They all met together and were constantly united in prayer, along with Mary the mother of Jesus, several other women, and the brothers of Jesus. Acts 1:14 NLT I invite you to join with thousands of other Christians in a Novena. The word Novena comes from the Latin for nine and describes the nine days when the disciples, together with Mary, Jesus' mother, waited for the promised Holy Spirit. They united in continuous prayer as Luke records in Acts. It is the nine days from the Ascension up to Pentecost. During these nine days the fledgling Church called out to God for power from on High so they could fulfil Jesus' command to witness to the very ends of the earth. They had a specific focus given by Jesus and so these nine days are for intentional prayer. In 2018 our reflections and prayers will focus on the words Jesus taught in the Lord s prayer, Your Kingdom come. By committing to this Novena, we declare our serious intention to call on God for his Kingdom to be made manifest throughout the earth. I encourage each of us to say the Lord's prayer at the start of each daily prayer during our Novena. Pause and pray that prayer right now; Our Father... This Novena seeks to draw God's diverse people into agreement and, with one united voice, to pray for the same objective. There is great power when God's people come together in agreement in prayer. Every day as I say Amen at the conclusion of my prayer, it will be both amplified and multiplied many thousands of times throughout the United Kingdom. Finally, I pray that each of us having dedicated ourselves to pray over these next nine days will ourselves experience a fresh visitation of the Holy Spirit. QUESTION: Will you commit to pray for the next nine days for God s kingdom to come to the United Kingdom with fresh power? Kingdom here in the earth. I entrust myself to you once more this day

2 Saturday 12th May I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery. Exodus 20:2 NLT Our reflections for this 2018 Premier Novena are based around the words Jesus taught in the Lord s prayer, Your Kingdom come. It sounds simple and clear and yet carries within it the very heart of our relationship to God. It is a simple thing to entrust ourselves into God s care and to acknowledge that God will provide for us in each and every situation. This I did enthusiastically and sincerely as a student. I had never had the gospel, or the good news about Jesus as my rescuer, explained to me. It made sense to my rational mind and slowly it took hold of my heart as well. I no longer simply believed in the logic of salvation, but I experienced a realisation of God s presence alongside me in my everyday life. However, then life began to happen all around and to me. There were things I enjoyed and circumstances I d never have chosen in a month of Sundays. This culminated in the journey Katey and I were introduced to following her diagnosis with progressive MS. Suddenly rescue seemed a somewhat hollow word. Like Israel I stood at the start of a journey of discovery. Freedom from slavery was not the equivalent of the comfortable life. I encountered the challenge from my own inner assumption that life in the earth must be easy for me. I deserved a good and steady income, safety from external threat to my security and well being, and the freedom to choose what I wanted in life. I was now invited to discover that journeying with God offered total provision, yet a provision that lay beyond my ability to understand and control. I was subject to God s rule. Our world prizes independence above all else and God s Kingdom can prove uncomfortable by contrast. It s so often realised in the hidden spaces ahead of the public squares. Israel was brought into a wilderness of God s choosing as the only route leading into the promised land. QUESTION: Will you lay down your independence and accept God s right to rule your life?

3 Sunday May 13th Look, they told him, you are now old, and your sons are not like you. Give us a king to judge us like all the other nations have. 1 Samuel 8:5 One of the greatest challenges and a tremendous source of learning, as I accompanied Katey on her journey with MS, was that there are very few definitive answers. I had erroneously held the view that medical science was far more precise than in fact it was. I discovered when anyone enters a period where health issues are not open and shut, then with the best will in the world, no medic can provide a definitive answer. Consequently both patient and medic struggle. The patient wanting the reassurance that a treatment will bring improvement and solve a medical issue, the medic uncomfortable with their responsibility to deliver news that things can get worse as well as better. I felt like I was stepping onto a frozen pond where the thickness of the ice was forever uncertain. At any moment I might plunge into the icy waters below at any moment. Living with uncertainty is stressful and yet is a central part of learning to life on earth. As the elders in Israel demand a king, tired of the uncertainties of the prophets with their their mixed motives and messages, they fail to recognise that they will not be guaranteed the certainty they crave. News reports from around the globe reveal that we exercise little control over our day to day destiny. None of us has a handle on what tomorrow might bring. This is why Jesus encourages us to think in terms of today rather than tomorrow. All the planning in the world will not divert disaster if it chooses to come calling. God is no guarantee against human disappointment, pain or personal tragedy. God offers accompaniment through such experiences and the promise of a promised land the other side of the desert. QUESTION: Do you seek simple answers to complex questions?

4 Monday May 14th Do everything they say to you, the Lord replied, for they are rejecting me, not you. They don t want me to be their king any longer. 1 Samuel 8;7 There is power in the words we use. Words are the means by which God created the world, God said. They are also the means we use to communicate ideas and feelings. With words we construct our understanding of ourselves, others and the world we inhabit. Words lay the foundations for realities we have to live with. My mum was a great example of this. She tends to make her mind up quickly and independent of any external advice, but unintended consequences become apparent over time. This is why seeking the counsel and wisdom of others is a good thing. Also waiting on critical decisions is also useful. In my younger days I was much like my mum, and life was more chaotic than need be. Here Israel look for a simple answer to a complex problem. The problem, discerning God's will in daily living. This is something I have struggled with over the years. Initially suffering the fear of stepping out of God s will through to a complete confusion as to what God s will is. Life happens to me and is this a consequence of failing to live within God s will? Or is it the reality of God inviting me to discover more of the Kingdom though life experience, trusting that whatever the scale of the challenge I will find my way and God s way? Imagining there is a simple answer to the way and will of God is foolish. The elders insistence, while looking a lot like assured leadership was actually a rejection of God. Certainty is an illusion we cherish in a world that seeks to manage risk. We should not be surprised if God acts like the least risk averse person we will ever encounter. QUESTION: Has life thrown you a curved ball lately?

5 Tuesday May 15th Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe. Hebrews 12:28 NLT Living in a liberal democracy it is difficult to imagine what living within a kingdom really looks like. Although the UK has a monarch as head of State, the Queen has major constraints placed on her. She is head of state but a parliamentary democracy of elected politicians exercises the authority to determine the laws that govern us. The monarchy would not survive long were it to try to assert any form of direct rule. A kingdom in the proper sense of the word is ruled by a monarch who has absolute power over their kingdom; its laws and its people. If the monarch decides to financially enrich himself and those he chooses at a whim, they can! His authority is absolute. Harsh and unappealing as such a structure sounds, this is the foundation for God s Kingdom. God in three persons is absolute monarch and demands total obedience from all subjects. My faith has been most tested when I appeal to my rights under the law in addressing God. Surely my faithfulness does not deserve a lack of favour from my God? And herein lies the problem, for I am under grace not law. I must embrace life s experience and seek to discover God within it, regardless of the apparent inequality between different human experience, Thus the philosopher's problem with an all sufficient God. How can it be that some are dealt a favourable hand in life, while others endure unimaginable suffering? A liberal democracy calls us to political protest and direct action seeking change. Human effort creates a better society for all. Yet God s Kingdom is not of this world and so we are in fact being equipped to live and serve God s Kingdom project both in the here and now and throughout eternity. QUESTION: What is your biggest challenge right now in praying your kingdom come?

6 Wednesday May 16th The time promised by God has come at last! he announced. The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News! Mark 1:15 NLT In this period of waiting between Christ s Ascension and Pentecost, the reality of the Kingdom hangs in the air. The disciples have encountered the risen Jesus and yet are uncertain of the implications for themselves and the world in which they live. They remain fearful of the consequences of following Jesus, yet obediently pray in anticipation of something remarkable that s about to happen. Uncertainty is a difficult emotion to manage. All the times of waiting for results concerning Katey s condition were tough. We longed for a positive report, but feared the worst. Nearly 20 years on I experience the same emotions as Jayne meets with specialists about her chronic health condition. But there is a difference. My self-serving negotiation with God is gone from my lips. I am in prayer and seeking to grasp God s workings in this distressful condition for Jayne. I am still waiting on what this might all mean but in such moments I need to remind myself that the Kingdom of God is at hand. I must reach out and take hold of it. I must make my stand upon the solid, if unseen, reality of the Kingdom, rather than the very real, yet transient reality, of this present age. Every emotion and thought is connected to the immediacy of my present, yet my identity is primarily established within the unseen, yet concrete reality of God s Kingdom. As I pray I move swiftly between faithfulness and faithlessness. Double minded on many occasions, yet clinging, often desperately, to the hope offered by the Kingdom presence Jesus promised. QUESTION: Spend a few moments considering the days the disciples spent huddled in fear praying in the upper room. What is your experience of living in no man s land. What are you anxious about, yet seeking to stand faithful?

7 Thursday May 17th The Kingdom of God can t be detected by visible signs. You won t be able to say, Here it is! or It s over there! For the Kingdom of God is already among you. Luke 17:20b-21 As I get older I easily forget where I have left things. It s all very well knowing I need a key to start my car. Yet, no help at all if I cannot locate the key! Understanding and application are two distinct states of being. Here Jesus explains that the Kingdom of God is more than a concept while not yet a tangible reality. Sounds like the worst of all possible worlds. The fact is that the Kingdom is visible wherever there is evidence of its existence. I grew up just outside London and travelled there often. I often passed Buckingham Palace with its uniformed soldiers on sentry duty. I knew this was a sign that the UK had a monarch. The royal standard flying from the flagpole told me the Queen was in residence. This was evidence to the reality of her majesty without ever my witnessing her in the flesh. So it is with God s Kingdom. We choose to live with the reality of the Kingdom before it is fully evident. You and I need to establish what flag we raise over our own life to indicate that God is in residence. What behaviours reveal our investment in the Kingdom of God ahead of the Kingdom of this world? Do we reflect the values of a world of impatience, materialism, selfishness and thoughtlessness? Or do we daily demonstrate the Kingdom of God through our lifestyle. I have learnt that I must disengage from much of life both to discern the character of God s Kingdom and find the means by grace to produce evidence of my commitment to its emergence on the earth. QUESTION: What fragments of God s Kingdom have you witnessed as you journey through life?

8 Friday May 18th Then the King will say to those on his right, Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. Matthew 25:34 Once while in Cairo airport all the luggage from our plane was mislaid. Every so often a different passenger would approach a member of staff only to be told they would have their luggage in ten minutes. No luggage appeared and ten minutes became two hours with no sign of our suitcases. The passengers mood deteriorated, not only because they were still separated from their luggage, but because the delay they were told to expect was a total misrepresentation of reality. Waiting is the natural stance for God s followers. We await God s Kingdom in all its fullness and we so easily miss God if we fail to stop and wait and watch. While we wait, we find ourselves filling the time with a variety of activities. All such activities will be weighed by God and where evidence exists that reveals righteousness, it shall be credited to us. My love for Katey expressed itself in a variety of ways as we encountered MS. My frustration often broke through as we waited on God before the experience made a shred of sense to either one of us. As for my actions, I would not count them as acts of righteousness, more actions born of necessity. I was weary, worn down and cranky often along the way, yet somehow we hung onto each other and God too. It never got easier and we were misunderstood by a watching world. I assume Katey already knows the degree to which her life was considered as righteousness. I await my own appointment with death to discover the truth. Our society platforms individuals and distributes meaningless honours as symbols of its own measure of righteousness. God, however, has the only meaningful and final judgment on the matter. QUESTION: What are you waiting for God to do or change in your life or those who you love the most?

9 Saturday May 19th READ: Zechariah 14:9 And the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day there will be one Lord - his name alone will be worshiped. It s hard to observe global events or experience personal disappointment and to maintain a constructive view of God s authority. Why is it that God s rule fails to counteract the evil and tragedy we observe and experience? Much like those first disciples we have a choice to wait in anticipation for the promises of God to be realised in some way - and some of these promises most likely lie beyond our lifespan, as they have our forebears. Living as if God is Sovereign is difficult when the evidence of our own eyes and experience suggest otherwise. And our experience is comfortable compared to refugees displaced by war or children trafficked to satisfy the lust of others. In living as if there is some divine order in the world, are we deluded or worse seeking to wrap human misery in a fantasy of our own imagination? It is more than anything else the clearest demonstration of faith, something insubstantial that lies well beyond the reach of reason. Conviction defies logic. And logic has its limitations as scientific research reveals with increasing regularity. Logic has its place, yet so does faith. A group of frightened disciples overwhelmed with disappointment are encouraged by meeting the Lord in risen form. Now obediently locked in the upper room, fearful for their fate, they are about to experience the outpouring of God s love in supernatural form. Yet, even as they receive the most remarkable gifts and will observe supernatural intervention, their lives will be subject to imprisonment, torture and cruel execution, simply for keeping faith with the Lord who has called them, yet is now ascended. It is indeed a challenge following Jesus. Yet, twelve disciples are empowered to turn their whole world upside down. And so can we QUESTION: Will you continue to pray; your kingdom come, your will be done?

10 Sunday May 20th Pentecost READ: Acts 2:2 Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. Jesus inaugurated his public ministry reading the Prophet Isaiah and announcing the arrival of Jubilee. Pentecost, equates to the Feast of the Harvest celebrated seven weeks (49 days) after the second day of Passover. The fiftieth day, reflects Jubilee s 50 years. Here a freewill offering was required. Now the disciples obediently waited of their own free will available to God. Jesus initially gathered twelve apostles, symbolic of the twelve tribes of Israel. This number is significantly re established with Judas replacement during the Jerusalem Novena. Jesus then commissioned the 70 to go out to gather in the harvest, 70 (or 72) being symbolic of what was then understood to represent all the people groups in the world. The Kingdom available to all who seek it. At the Last Supper Jesus introduced the new covenant of his body and blood, before himself becoming the sacrificial lamb crucified, risen and ascended throwing open God s eternal door of mercy. The Spirit, represented as tongues of fire, is symbolic of God s leading of his people through the wilderness into the promised land, and now the permanent means by which redeemed humanity can retain communication with God. Each of the apostles spoke in a God inspired language, yet each tongue was comprehensible to the gathering crowd. The church now established as both a gathered and a missional community, is a source of God s presence and a community with a mission to share God s life. Pentecost today reminds us of the significance and importance of church as a gathered community. Of its calling, albeit in different forms, to be a place of worship and encounter, a dwelling space for the presence of God. It also renews our responsibility to freely offer ourselves to God s work of mission wherever life finds us. QUESTION: Will you call out to God for a fresh outpouring of his spirit to renew your intimate communication with God and be empowered for obedient service of God? PRAYER: Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me. Melt me, mould me, fill me and use me. Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me.