40 days to change the world!

I was down in York a week or two ago.

The churches there were launching their 40 Days of Prayer in the run-up to Easter - something we'd done here last year and .. well, things have hardly been the same since doing so.

Things happen when God's people pray - and we're doing it again ourselves this year: joining together in 40 days of concentrated prayer. And who knows what will happen next!

The message is obviously getting out. York is not that big a place, in truth (maybe 150,000 or so) - but nonetheless there were, I think, some 67 churches represented there that night. That's a lot of praying people. And the spirit of the evening was reflective of just that. An air of expectancy and a spirit of praise.

Something's going on these days.

Rolling in across our land, unseen perhaps by most, there is today a moving of the Spirit of the Lord: a wave of grace, the surging power of God, advancing up the shores of our society and breaking with a sparkling spray of latent opportunity and hope. Now's the time, indeed, for us to catch that wave of swelling grace by praying down the blessing of almighty God upon our land: even as the Lord himself, in turn, will catch the wave our praying in these days creates and ride across the nation in his power.

It was quite an occasion, down there in the city of York; and everything about it seemed to underline just why this simple exercise of praying all together over 40 days is really so significant.

It was held in the old Guildhall, a building dating back, I think, to 1450 or so.

History. The past. The heritage we have throughout our land. The place was simply dripping in that history. A reminder that to catch the wave, we build on all the labours and the praying which the former generations have put in.

And all sorts of people were there as well. The Lord Mayor. The Sheriff of York (which had me somehow thinking I was back in all those days of Robin Hood: but it wasn't really like that much at all, of course - although the Sheriff did advise me that one task he had to do was, every year, go round each pub and have a pint and check they weren't diluting all their beer: no wonder he was such a happy chap!).

And the man with the keys as well. Keys that dated back some five long centuries and more! Not the sort of thing you want to lose - but then, as he explained, the size they are, they're hardly going to slip down through some hole within your jacket or the like (and even if they did, you'd kind of notice straight away!).

The lock's the same today as that which first they used when all those centuries ago the Guildhall was being built: and so the keys remain the same.

A lesson there, for sure. The keys remain the same. Prayer remains the means by which the gates of God's great ancient hall of blessing are unlocked: the key to our releasing that great reservoir of grace and power today.

I was struck by one of the displays they had.

Many different churches and associated bodies had been busy putting up their colourful displays. Having a wander and finding myself at the end of the Hall, I assumed this was simply another display, put up to encourage our praying.

The display was comprised of three panels: and the thing that attracted attention was the one-word and bold-lettered headline that each of the panels declared.

Fire. Devastation. Revival.

What happens when we pray. I thought to myself what a clear and helpful reminder this was of the impact our praying will have. Uniting in prayer, as we're seeking to do, releases the fire. The Spirit of God is poured out. That's where it all begins.

And then there's devastation. Not quite in the league of a bull in a china shop - but not far off: the Spirit of God causes all sorts of havoc in churches whose life is so tidy and neat. Not perhaps exactly what we have in mind when asking for a little bit of growth within the church!

But that remains the panel that is stuck between the fire of God's great Spirit coming down upon his people as we pray, and true, sustained revival in the land.

Of course, when I got up close and read the blurb, I realised then I'd picked the thing up wrong! That panel there was not about our prayers at all. It was, instead, a note about procedures to be followed in the case of fire and then a potted history of the bombing of the Guidhall through the war.

But, hey, the headlines nonetheless were on the ball so far as prayer's concerned!

David Hill - he started it all!

Prayer calls down the fire of God, which issues in revival in a person's and a nation's life. That's why we're asked to pray for three specific people through the 40 days - intent upon 'revival' of some sort in each one of their lives.

And so it seemed to me a kind and striking providence of God that Sunday morning past, the first within the 40 Days of Prayer, we had three different people out the front professing faith..

As if God meant to underline to all of us that this is where the praying for our three specific people's meant to end. We pray. The fire of God's Spirit erupts from on high. The lives of ordinary people are disrupted and transformed. And men and women, young and old alike, are wonderfully revived!

But Sunday's 'three' were somehow, too, expressive of the ways in which God works in people's lives: and pointers, thus, to what should be priorities for us and lessons we should learn. Let me explain.

Marcus was the first to come out front (we did it alphabetically - by surname). A fine young man at the latter end of his teenage years.

And how did he come to faith? The Spirit of God simply came most powerfully upon him while he was walking one day down the street!

Absolutely nothing in the upbringing he'd received to lead him to this point. But out of the blue and quick as a flash the man was brought to life!

Startling! Amazing! The sovereign work of the living God. And we'd better not forget it!

Like God was simply saying to us all - I do this sort of thing! Whatever else may sometimes be involved in lives being revolutionised, the bottom line is always this - it's God who brings to life. He's able to do it, eager to do it, ready to do it. So ask him to do it!

And then there was Claire. Now Claire comes from a really lovely Christian home, a down-to-earth and vibrant Christian faith being very much the hallmark of her family life for what is now at least two generations back - and maybe more for all I know.

She had her ups and downs, of course. A Christian home can't ever give a guarantee your journey to a living faith will be somehow an easy and an automatic thing. No, she had to reach that point of faith herself.

But having such a family always helps! And so does having Christian friends, whose patience and encouragement makes Jesus real. Claire had those sort of friends as well, who talked and shared and helped her work things through until that faith was born in her as well.

Like God was keen to make it clear how central is the place the family has within his purposes of grace: and stress as well how crucial is the simple gift of friendship in the name of Christ.

Lemiya was the third to stand out front professing faith. She was different again.

She came for lunch one day. Dropped in, because she happened to be passing by. Soup and a roll was what she sought - but, hey, she ended with the Bread of life!

She hadn't a hint of any of that, of course, the day she first called in.

And hadn't a clue about Christ!

But back she came another day a few weeks later on. Why? Well, just because she'd liked the food and found that there'd been something in the friendship and the service that she'd known the first time round which made her wish for more.

And so began her search, that led in time to her being glad to welcome Jesus Christ into her heart and find in him a life she'd scarcely even dreamed was there to live.

And once again, it was as if the Lord himself was simply making clear to us the part that's played by working at 'environments' where people get a flavour of the life he longs to give.

The powerful work of the Spirit of God. The pivotal place of the Christian home. The personal touch with the coffee and chat.

It was just as if the Lord was saying to us - you've got to work at these. You want to see the fire and then revival in a nation's life? Well, this is how it happens: and this is where it starts.

With 40 Days of Prayer behind it all - who knows how much our world will be transformed!