It’s been a sad few days on the North Coast of our country. The last few evenings have seen people taking to the streets to protest, which some have leveraged into violence, in scenes that remind us all of our country years ago. We have seen road blockages, fires in the street, people running scared, and objects being hurled at the police. We could talk for hours about why people are protesting and how we feel about that, but this isn’t a space for that – we’ll leave that to others more qualified. Today we were praying for peace ❤️

Isaiah, an Old Testament prophet, was prophesying about Jesus’ birth and called Him the Prince of Peace. And that is exactly who Jesus is! When He came to earth many years after Isaiah, Jesus sought to give/leave His peace to others, as well as teaching us to be Peacemakers. The image of a peacemaker can create all sorts of images for us as modern-day readers. Perhaps we picture a peacemaker as some kind of chilled-out hippie, all relaxed, and hugging everyone; or a person with a white flag in the middle of a war. Maybe we imagine someone up a mountain, legs crossed, or in some other kind of strange yoga pose as they seek their ‘inner peace’! However, when we read through the Scriptures, we see that the Prince of Peace, Jesus, doesn’t fit any of our modern-day descriptions. In fact, He’s not even close to any of them! What we find out is that Jesus wasn’t always chilling out; He was active and engaged but understood the value of rest. Jesus wasn’t quiet when He needed to speak up, but He still remained lowly and gentle. Jesus didn’t seek trouble, but He didn’t back away from it when it found Him. Jesus didn’t talk about or model peace in the way we might imagine it.

In the Kingdom of God making peace doesn’t mean inactivity, silence, or retreat. The word ‘shalom’ most often translated ‘peace’ in english is perhaps better translated as ‘wholeness.’ Peace in Jesus’ mind wasn’t the absence of a battle but the fulfilment of God’s Kingdom pattern in our everyday battles. Full peace in the Kingdom means there is nothing missing and nothing broken. While Jesus didn’t form an army or take the Roman empire by force, He fulfilled His Kingdom mandate and through His supernatural power transformed the world as we know it. The transformation of the Kingdom through Christ was more effective than any military campaign. That doesn’t mean the work is done. The Bible is clear that while Jesus, through His death and resurrection, gained the ultimate victory over the forces of darkness, the battles we face today do still happen. As followers of Jesus we must recognise that there are spiritual battles still being fought. The defeated enemy isn’t just a deceiver, he is also deceived, and he still fights like he can win. I know in the western church we don’t like this kind of talk but it is a biblical reality. Spiritual warfare is something we believe we must understand, and we must pray against the enemy’s hold that he seeks to tighten over our communities. At times there are causalities in the fight but the good news is we do this with the power of the Holy Spirit and we work from a place of victory in Jesus. Today we decided to take up that fight by praying in the areas that have been most affected by the disorderly behaviour we have witnessed in our town. Today we laid hands on the buildings and prayed peace over the area. Come Holy Spirit!

On our way to pray in the areas most affected locally by the protests, we also walked through Coleraine town centre. This is a space that we have both heard of from a distance and seen personally up close God doing many amazing things, some of which we detailed in the post about our last prayer lap. It is always such a privilege and a joy to join our prayers in that space with the prayers of others that stretch back through many generations 🙌 As we walked through the rest of our town, we prayed prophetically, with hope in our hearts, for the dreams that God has shared with us for our town to become a reality.

We headed from Coleraine towards Portrush and as we arrived there, we were joined by 2 of our amazing friends for a leg of our prayer walk 🥳 These guys are such an example of how to live lives of faith in Jesus! They constantly spur us on to live bigger, expecting the supernatural ways of the Kingdom to be unveiled in our normal, everyday moments! They are also a lot of fun and great friends, so we had the best time walking and praying with them for our area. As we walked today, our prayers kept coming back to families. We prayed for families to be restored where they have broken down, and for redemption of family and marriage for people who have lived through painful experiences. We also noticed a lot of empty or run-down houses, and so we prayed that people would not only live with roofs over their heads, but that family homes would be established for every family in our area, especially for those who aren’t living in that reality at this moment.

Today was a great day, even though we ended up getting a bit soaked on the final leg on our way home!! We are loving doing these walks and can’t wait to see what the Lord is doing through these days 😃🙌