Thames Gateway Prayer Day 3 – Saturday 6 June 2009
A brisk breeze blew across the flats Westcliff Beach, exposed by the early evening low tide. A group of approximately 12 Believers formed a small solemn circle in the ominous shadow of the Crowstone obelisk that marks the former limit of the Port of London Authority.
This was one half of the Thames Gateway Prayernet – the south Essex prophetic intercessors, gathering to pray prayers of watching and waiting, of symbolism and significance. Meanwhile, across the expanse of Estuary ebb and flow, a similar group gathered simultaneously – these were the Kentish equivalent. They’d made the far more arduous trek across the marshland and creeks of the Isle of Grain to reach the Crowstone’s counterpart almost directly south at the other end of the ‘Yantlet Line’, the London Stone.
We established mobile contact, and shofars were blown across the wild waters. Each group then followed a rough prayer guide (prepared by Liz Pooley of Dartford), allowing for moments of reflection and open prayer for issues and acts of the prophetic.
We began by remembering the 65th anniversary of D-Day, and the immense role that the River Thames played on 6 June 1944. We read that, “Britain was the launching pad for the liberation of Europe, and as such is a picture of taking the gospel back into Europe and beyond; establishing a highway of holiness (Isaiah 35:8) that leads all the way to Jerusalem. Our nation’s destiny is to take the gospel to the nations, and this calling has often been coloured by an empire spirit and the desire to dominate.” We sang some songs and praised God for the true Overlordship of Jesus Christ, the role the UK has played in world history with regards to the broadcasting of the good news of the
Kingdom, and repented of the negative aspects of that empire spirit – we have often subdued when we’ve been called to serve (Matthew 28:18-19, John 13:3-5).
Later this week the Logos Hope will be sailing up the river, bringing the gospel to London, and so we prayed a welcome to this ‘ship of fools’ and her precious cargo of the Word of God and The Word in the form of his Body, his evangelists and intercessors on board and volunteering in their Jonah-like mission to our own ‘Ninevah’.
Ruth Verrinder of Southend had found a petrified chain link on the beach and so we used this as a visual aid for prayer. From a certain angle, it was very serpentine and snakelike, and so we cleansed the river of a ‘leviathan’ spirit, which again has connotations of control. We symbolically poured oil and salt over the rust encrusted distorted metal.
A simple communion was conducted and then we prayed for the coastlands and the peoples of the Thames Corridor (Isaiah 42:10,12) and for the Cities of London and Westminster, this being the Week of Prayer for Parliament (Isaiah 22:22-23a). We came to the Lord as watchmen on the mouth of the river that flows out from and leads into the very heart of our nation. We cast a spiritual ‘submarine net’ across the Thames where once there had been a physical one – to protect our capital. This was in response to a word concerning ‘cylindrical objects’ emerging from the river outside Parliament, and ‘poison’ coming from them.
A proclamation was made of the word to Arthur Burt in 1930 (see article about GDOP at Hardie Park). Ruth had also gathered 12 stones from further up the Southend front with which we formed a cross on the beach. We concluded with a joint reading of Psalm 141:1-4 and 24:3-10 over the telephone, and then each side blew their shofars once more with great gusto.
The next Thames Gateway Prayer Day is scheduled for Saturday 5 September when the TGP will be praying at each end of the QE2 Bridge. On Saturday 7 November, we’ll be praying at Erith Quay and Coldharbour Point. In between is the Pocahontas prayer cruise.
