On a Saturday night in March 2001,
more than 1,700 people and 120 Pastors gathered at the Hills Entertainment
Centre in Sydney to declare and proclaim that "Sydney Belongs to
Jesus". The idea was to "test the waters" so little
publicity and organisation went into the night. The overwhelming
result was a spontaneous expression by the people of Sydney of their desire to
exalt righteousness in our city rather than continue to live with the
image of unrighteousness that has been portrayed to the world through such
images as those created by the annual Mardi Gras that parades through the
streets of our city each year.
A tremendous sense of unity and enthusiasm was engendered
right through the night. Even the local Mayor of the Municipality
attended. Fred
& Elaine Nile came as our guests and we honoured them for their past
efforts in upholding righteousness and they received not one, but three,
prolonged ovations, including one standing ovation, that brought tears to their
eyes and the eyes of many others as well. It was great to be a Sydneysider and an
Australian!
Some of the Pastors also wept as they read out the
Declaration. A
Tree of Righteousness was planted in our city!
Our speaker Sergio Scattaglini from Argentina spoke on
the “Fire of God to move from personal anointing to National
revival.” At the end he called for repentance and
asked people to come and throw on to the stage anything they were carrying
that had been obtained, or given to them, as a result of an unrighteous act or relationship. Earrings, necklaces, mobile phones, drugs and many more
things were thrown onto the stage in response.
Nationwide Prayer Gatherings
Saturday 2 March 2002
Sydney: at the 4,500
seat States Sports Centre
By Brian Pickering, National Coordinator of the Australian
Prayer Network (picksaa@compassnet.com.au)
Following all the prayer that has gone into our nation in 2001, including the recent National Day of Prayer which
saw 25,000 people praying together in unity for our Nation, we believe it is on
God’s heart that the whole nation makes the
declaration “Australia belongs to Jesus”. It is time for us as the Church to “draw a line in the sand”
and take a positive stand for righteousness in our nation by gathering
together in hundreds of towns and cities across Australia to proclaim that
“............. (your
community) belongs to Jesus”.
We are not going to try and organise such gatherings. We believe God will
have already put it in the hearts of many Pastors and people Australia
wide to express their concern for the direction our nation has been
going over many years, and the faith to believe that turning back to God
in righteousness is the only answer. All we wish to do is to light the fire
and provide a national focus for a nation-wide gathering of His people
on Saturday 2nd March, 2002.
It is a time of repentance, declaration and
celebration as we both proclaim and give positive witness to our desire for
righteousness to be exalted in our city. It is a night to honour those in our
community who have exalted righteousness over many years, and inspire
others to set their own lives apart for a similar cause. There are of
course many expressions of unrighteousness in our nation and you will have
those that especially relate to your community, but they will only be
overcome as the people of God take a positive stand to plant “Trees of Righteousness” across
our land.
How can the Prayer Network help? For those felt
called to organise such a gathering in your community we would be happy to
supply the wording of the declarations spoken over the city of Sydney by
both Pastors and people at the 2001 gathering.
Simply email me registering your intention to hold a gathering in
your community and requesting the wording, which can be easily adapted to your
own community, to be sent to you.
Don’t let us allow the ground
that has been taken in our nation this year through prayer to slip away
from us again. The people of God are on the march so let us take another step
in the process of calling our nation back to its Godly inheritance as part
of the Great South Land of the Holy Spirit. Will you join those who will gather
again next year, and we believe, will fill the 4,500 seat States
Sports Centre here in Sydney.
Together we will experience His victory.
Central Coast Combined Churches Gathering, NSW
Sunday 25 November 2001
Organisers were overwhelmed with the response from the Christian community of
the Central Coast to a recent citywide combined Churches service which
about 1600 people attended in a venue designed for 1000 - the overflow rooms
worked overtime! A feature of the rally was that it was attended by
people of all ages from babies to those in their 80's.
The evening was divided between prayer and worship and the signing of a
covenant between pastors and leaders - the worship was lead by one
of the local churches while pastors and leaders from Anglican, Baptist,
Salvation Army, Uniting, independent and Pentecostal/charismatic churches led
in prayer
After the reading of the covenant approximately 100 - 120 ministers/pastors and
leaders stood before the people expressing a commitment to the spirit of the
covenant and were led in prayer to ask the Lord's forgiveness for past
divisions amongst the different church groups. A substantial number of
ministers/pastors and pastoral representatives then signed the covenant.
We thank God for the seed He has planted - we trust He will grow the tree of
transformation on the Coast in His way and in His timing using who He
will.
Source: Servant leadership, City-wide church. Central Coast NSW
The regions of Brisbane have been conducting united prayer gatherings
for two years now. Logan is the south
is strongest, with gatherings of around 1000 bi-monthly or quarterly. Redcliffe churches in the north of Brisbane
have regular combined services.
City Harvest Church has initiated national gatherings with key speakers
in Brisbane, especially the Out There Conferences of 2001 and 2002.
A small monthly pastors prayer group has met for some years now, and
has begun holing united prayer gatherings hosted by the Citipointe Christian
Outreach Centre at Mansfield, which has been packed with 1500 attending or
more.
The first of these city-wide united prayer gatherings was in September
2001, just after the September 11 attack.
The gathering not only prayed but raised $2000 support for New York
victims, and a further $2000 support for outreach to youth in the December
Schoolies Week on the Gold Coast and elsewhere.
The next of these gathering was in March, 2002 at the time of CHOGM,
being held in Queensland. Each of these
gathering now concludes with a worship time during which anyone can come for prayer
for salvation, recommitment, Spirit-filling, or healing. Pastors from many different churches pray
for those who come.
You can help. Just pray – in
faith. God answers prayer. Pray for God to have mercy on us, and pour
out his Spirit in mighty power on us all, for his great glory alone.
© Renewal Journal #17: Unity (2001:1) www.renewaljournal.com
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