Glimpses of Blessing Promises of Hope

Ian Nicholson, June 28th, 2010

"Go and look toward the sea," Elijah told his servant. And he went up and looked. "There is nothing there," he said."

What would you have done?

Elijah prayed to God for rain and 6 times he sent his servant to look to the sea for the advancing thunder and lightning. Nothing! The sky remained clear and the sun continued to blaze, just at it had been for 42 months.

Seven times Elijah said, "Go back."  
The seventh time the servant reported, "A cloud as small as a man's hand is rising from the sea."

Eventually at the seventh attempt a small cloud was in the sky. A mere small cloud for a day qualifies as an extended heatwave here in England but in Israel that was all Elijah needed to know the floods were imminent. Elijah had prayed and prevailed.

If you study the spiritual history of any nation or tribe you will find that the initial work of breakthrough is always accomplished on our knees..... ALWAYS! Any situation where the kingdom of God is advancing can be traced back to a faithful group of heroes who faced impossibilities, prayed and prevailed. The victory is first won in the heavenlies before it is expressed on earth and we first glimpse the floods of God’s blessing in the small clouds of promise.

When we launched a season of prayer for Europe in Macedonia back in March we were surprised by the breadth and spread of people who got in touch. Small groups in Italy, France, Czech Republic, Ireland and many other nations who had been called to live and were committed to praying in the face of impossibilities for their towns and nations. At times we can all think that change is slow but personally I am sensing a change of climate and am seeing small clouds of blessing wherever I go – BE ENCOURAGED!

Recently we gathered in the Balkans and there were so many encouragements

Goce, a young Macedonian, who was from a troubled background but was arrested by God one night – seeing a bright shining light and dropping to his knees in the middle of the street to meet Jesus. Goce has grown more in a year as a Christian than many others do in a decade.

Milka, a young music student from a poor town who overflows and bubbles with excitement about how real Jesus is to her and the difference he has made to her life in the last 2 years.

Ane, the martial arts expert who formerly scared his neighbours in Veles through his violent outbursts who has met Jesus and gently shared about how He has softened his heart; he is now leading friends to Jesus

Tommie Naumann, now in Thessaloniki, Greece, telling me how their new church is growing and they are now close to having another church plant as part of a local bar. Tommie also told me about a group of young people in his city who mixed up dates and their youth leader couldn’t make a meeting. So they decided to pray unofficially (!!) and God surprised them and overwhelmed them with the presence of His Spirit in dramatic ways. (This is not normal for Greece!) Tommie then started to tell me about how the Holy Spirit is working in the Middle East..... thats for another time!

James and Laura planting a church in Croatia and now looking for the next step - and introducing us to Dragon and Snjezana; a couple who live in a small town in the mountains of central Croatia where they’ve converted a barn onto a house of prayer. They have committed their lives to prayer with Dragon praying from 3 – 7 am EVERY morning and 4 hours further in the day – heroic hidden work!

And then I got an email from Brian Heasley where 24-7 Ibiza have already prayed with several to give their lives to Jesus this summer

We have been holding a little Sunday night gathering and last week a bar worker who has never been to church before came along, which is fantastic. He's interested in God so has started reading the bible and read Genesis and Exodus in a week! Pray for him that he will make the step to becoming a Christian this summer. Also at the same meeting 4 prostitutes turned up,( a further 6 came to the second week) it was beautiful. Then last night KT who is here for 9 weeks and is the shyest girl you could ever meet, led a holiday maker to Jesus on the street! 

The ‘Jesus loves Ibiza’ bibles are flying off the shelves and one bar owner who I gave one to wrote this as his facebook status yesterday: “Sean is reading his copy of Jesus Loves Ibiza! It's been a while! Thanks Brian!” lots of people are calling it “Jesus loves Ibiza” rather than the bible. 100 have been given out in a week with personal hand written messages in each one.’

And then I thought of Guildford where I live and there have been people finding Jesus in real and tangible ways. One girl student came to the 24-7 prayer caravan at the university when she arrived and then did Alpha, and then became a Christian and is getting baptised in September. Not a bad year! And where I work in a local Football Club having so many opportunities to share God’s love and pray with people.

Time fails me! We could say more about the prayer rooms in UK schools, opportunities to pray in North Africa and Turkey, prayer houses around the Mediterranean and prayer journeys through Romania and the growing communities BUT this is just a small snapshot from one person. The clouds ARE there friends and the call to pray that Europe will rediscover its identity and destiny in God is strong and persistent.

Thank you for your encouragements and news; we are half way through our 6 month focus on Europe and will be bringing a more specific prayer focus for specific situations in the coming weeks. Keep praying and persevering – the small clouds are there and the storms are on the way – the kingdom advancing on earth always begins in the heavenlies.

Please join us in Edinburgh at Magnify where we will have an opportunity to celebrate 6 months of prayer for Europe, meet other 24-7ers and share your own stories of ‘little white clouds!’

To join with Christians all over the world in praying for the prodigal continent of Europe visit our new website 24-7prayer.eu where you can sign up to pray, for weekly newsletters and prayer resources. You might also like to read Ian Nicholson's article Restoring the Romance or watch our excellent European Prayer video.