A compilation of scriptures that have impacted the borough at various times over recent years. All are NIV unless otherwise stated.
Exodus 17:12
When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up – one on one side, one on the other – so that his hands remained steady till sunset.
Intercession is an act of unity. Hold each other up.
Exodus 20:25
If you make an altar of stones for me, do not build it with dressed stones, for you will defile it if you use a tool on it.
God sees us as individually created rough-and-ready rocks, not manmade, artificially fabricated cloned bricks. (From Grays Pentecostal Church in the 1990s.)
Exodus 31:1-4
Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘See I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills – to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze,
The first person in the Bible to be Spirit-filled was a creative! This is prophetic.
Leviticus 6:12
The fire on the altar must be kept burning; it must not go out.
A picture of continuous prayer: in the first 24-7 Prayer weeks held in 2002, there was a candle that was kept alight for each of the 168 hours.
(From The Lost Art of Intercession by Jim W. Goll in c.1998)
Joshua 3:5
Joshua told the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.’
We are already consecrated by the work of Jesus, but still, always be expecting the unexpected!
Judges 6:12
When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, ‘The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.’ [or: mighty man of valour]
The word over Thurrock.
2 Samuel 5:17-21
When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over Israel, they went up in full force to search for him, but David heard about it and went down to the stronghold. Now the Philistines had come and spread out in the Valley of Rephaim; so David enquired of the Lord, ‘Shall I go and attack the Philistines? Will you deliver them into my hands?’
The Lord answered him, ‘Go, for I will surely deliver the Philistines into your hands.’
David went to Baal Perazim, and there he defeated them. He said, ‘As waters break out, the Lord has broken out against my enemies before me.’ [The Message: ‘The Master who explodes‘!] So that place was called Baal Perazim. The Philistines abandoned their idols there, and David and his men carried them off.
Don’t dam up God; don’t control the Holy Spirit; let the power flow in, through and out (super)naturally. (From the early 2000s.)
2 Chronicles 7:14
… if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
The condition and the consequence. As Ethel Jones said, “Obdience liberates divine power.” (Used extensively around the time of the Global Day of Prayer London 2008-12, and for the 2015 General Election.)
Proverbs 29:18 KJV
Where there is no vision, the people perish…
But the Believer does have vision, and revelation, and insight, and wisdom.
Psalm 24:7-10
Lift up your heads, you gates;
be lifted up, you ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The Lord strong and mighty,
the Lord mighty in battle.
Lift up your heads, you gates;
lift them up, you ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
Who is he, this King of glory?
The Lord Almighty –
he is the King of glory.
Declared by the Thames Gateway Prayernet every time we prophetically interceded anywhere between (and including) the Estuary and Tower Bridge.
Psalm 133:1-3
How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!
It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard,
running down on Aaron’s beard, down on the collar of his robe.
It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion.
For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life for evermore.
Unity is a spiritual principle. Therefore, division is not of God.
Isaiah 41:17-20
‘The poor and needy search for water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst.
But I the Lord will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys.
I will turn the desert into pools of water, and the parched ground into springs.
I will put in the desert the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive.
I will set junipers in the wasteland, the fir and the cypress together,
so that people may see and know, may consider and understand,
that the hand of the Lord has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it.
The word over Thurrock given by Pam Lane at a prayer meeting of the Thurrock Christian Schools’ Worker Group in c.1996. The different trees are miraculously planted unity in the same oasis served by the same underground aquifer – as a sign by which the world comes to faith in Christ.
Isaiah 43:18-19
Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.
God is perpetually re-creating creation. All we have to do is grasp this fact and run with the ever-changing church, the ever-unfolding revelation, the ever-babbling brook, the never-static standstill stagnant pool. Movement not monument; momentum not management.
Isaiah 58:1-12
‘Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.
For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them.
“Why have we fasted,” they say, “and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?”
‘Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers.
Your fasting ends in quarrelling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high.
Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?
‘Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter –
when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: here am I.
‘If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
and if you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.
The Lord will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.’
The Bible’s anti-religion manifesto.
Isaiah 60:1-3
‘Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples,
but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you.
Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.’
In Thurrock, the nations are here! Let’s shine for Jesus! They’ve been sent to hear the Good News from us…
Isaiah 61:1-7
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
and provide for those who grieve in Zion –
to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes,
the oil of joy instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendour.
They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated;
they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.
Strangers will shepherd your flocks;
foreigners will work your fields and vineyards.
And you will be called priests of the Lord,
you will be named ministers of our God.
You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast.
Instead of your shame you will receive a double portion,
and instead of disgrace you will rejoice in your inheritance.
And so you will inherit a double portion in your land, and everlasting joy will be yours.
The job spec of every believer. (It was read out over Colin Baker when he was installed as pastor at Grays Baptist Church in 2004.)
Isaiah 62:4
No longer will they call you Deserted, or name your land Desolate.
But you will be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah;
for the Lord will take delight in you, and your land will be married.
A word for Thurrock – healing the orphan spirit – given by the Thames Gateway Prayernet.
Jeremiah 2:13
My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
Some fellowships are doing it in their own strength, and they don’t even know it. (Word given at the Grays Leaders’ Prayer Retreat Day on 4 January 2007 by Rod Sexton, then of Chafford Hundred Community Church.)
Jeremiah 6:16
Stand at the crossroads and look;
ask for the ancient paths,
ask where the good way is, and walk in it,
and you will find rest for your souls.
But you said, “We will not walk in it.”
This has a Celticky flavour to it. The ancient is older than the old, its foundations are found in eternity, its reality is now.
Ezekiel 34:1-16
The word of the Lord came to me: ‘Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak or healed those who are ill or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.
‘“Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, because my flock lacks a shepherd and so has been plundered and has become food for all the wild animals, and because my shepherds did not search for my flock but cared for themselves rather than for my flock, therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them.
‘“For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land. I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will tend my sheep and make them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord. I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.
Shepherding isn’t about control. It’s about having love, power – and self-contol. If anyone is hurt by church, look to the Jesus, the Great Shepherd – he loves you. Been there, done that, got the tee-shirt, and came out the other side. More than once.
Ezekiel 37:1-14
The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me to and fro among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’
I said, ‘Sovereign Lord, you alone know.’
Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones and say to them, “Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.”’
So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.”’ So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet – a vast army.
Then he said to me: ‘Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, “Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.” Therefore prophesy and say to them: “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.”’
Another word over the borough. Awaken oh sleeping giant that is the church of Thurrock!
Ezekiel 47:1-12
The man brought me back to the entrance to the temple, and I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple towards the east (for the temple faced east). The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar. He then brought me out through the north gate and led me round the outside to the outer gate facing east, and the water was trickling from the south side.
As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits and then led me through water that was ankle-deep. He measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another thousand and led me through water that was up to the waist. He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in – a river that no one could cross. He asked me, ‘Son of man, do you see this?’
Then he led me back to the bank of the river. When I arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river. He said to me, ‘This water flows towards the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, where it enters the Dead Sea. When it empties into the sea, the salty water there becomes fresh. Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live. Fishermen will stand along the shore; from En Gedi to En Eglaim there will be places for spreading nets. The fish will be of many kinds – like the fish of the Mediterranean Sea. But the swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt. Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.’
Used as the basis for the Wave Room at a 24-7 Prayer week at the All Saints Centre, John Street, Grays, in about 2003/4. We built a wave coming out of the wall, and if you stood under it you got soaked by wave upon wave of the Holy Spirit. Lord, send more waves!
Zechariah 1:18-21
Then I looked up, and there before me were four horns. I asked the angel who was speaking to me, ‘What are these?’
He answered me, ‘These are the horns that scattered Judah, Israel and Jerusalem.’
Then the Lord showed me four craftsmen. I asked, ‘What are these coming to do?’
He answered, ‘These are the horns that scattered Judah so that no one could raise their head, but the craftsmen have come to terrify them and throw down these horns of the nations who lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter its people.’
Craftsmen, artists, artisans, creatives, re-imaginers and prophetics are way more scary to the enemies of God than we give them credit for, because they shift atmospheres and mindsets of church, regions and nations.
Habakkuk 2;2,3
Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it.
For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false.
Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.
I got these verses three times in one week in late1989. As a result, I became the youth leader at Grays Pentecostal Church for the next decade.
Zechariah 2:14-5
“Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the great number of people and animals in it. And I myself will be a wall of fire around it,” declares the Lord, “and I will be its glory within.”
Leave the building of the church to Jesus, and get on with making disciples. God is turning the church inside-out, so the hidden is exposed: the church confronted by a deparate, cynical world, and the world is confronted by… by what sort of church? (Mike Genockey, apostolic overseer of a church-in-the-house network in South Africa, brought this verse to a Grays Leaders’ Prayer gathering at Roy & Margaret Smith’s in about 2007.)
Haggai 2:6-9
‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: “In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,” says the Lord Almighty. The silver is mine and the gold is mine,” declares the Lord Almighty. The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,” says the Lord Almighty. “And in this place I will grant peace,” declares the Lord Almighty.’
When Jesus shakes, there’s rattle and roll. Except for that which is built upon the foundations of the apostles and prophets. So the next can always be better than the previous.
Haggai 2:23
“On that day,” declares the Lord Almighty, “I will take you, my servant Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel,” declares the Lord, “and I will make you like my signet ring, for I have chosen you,” declares the Lord Almighty.’
A promise for Thurrock. (Given to me after I lost my wedding ring in late 1990. It was under a Bible, which then sprung open at this verse.)
The New Testament scriptures will follow soon!