Bless the City (1)

Paternoster Square - City of London

On Wednesday 26th September 2012, which is the Jewish Day of Atonement, a number of us will be going to the City of London, one of the leading financial centres in the world to undertake a prophetic act of blessing the financial institutions and organisations that operate out of the City.

Through blessing the City we believe God wants to release a profound change in the spiritual atmosphere over the financial institutions and organisations in our nation and around the world.

Why Bless the City?

Over the last few years the City, and the financial and commercial organisations that operate from there have been rocked by financial instability, scandal and loss of confidence, as those who are amongst the richest in our society scrabble for control of more of the world's resources, at the same time as much of the world's population continues to live in abject poverty.

We want to Bless the City because God has a better plan. 

We believe that the financial and commercial institutions in our nation have come under the spiritual influence of Babylon, which symbolises the drive to make money in order to satisfy corporate greed and make huge profits for a few at the expense of the many.

When financial and commercial institutions come under the government of God's Kingdom, those priorities change. The Kingdom of Heaven is righteousness, joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. Righteousness means how our lives are to be lived in a very practical sense, both individually and corporately. As Micah 6:8 says: To act justly, and love mercy and walk humbly with your God.

We believe God is looking for the establishment of a financial system, which has as its priority not the making of money through exploitation and greed, but the creation of wealth - the responsible use of financial, material and other resources for the benefit of all.

Who will be there?

We have absolutely no idea. It could very easily just be half a dozen of us, or possibly a few or even many others could get to hear about it and decide to join us. In many ways it doesn't matter. Prophetic action can just as easily be carried out by one person, a few dozen people or even hundreds. The effectiveness of prophetic action is not dependent on numbers, but on faith in response to God.

What are we going to do?

At this point very little is planned in any concrete way, and that's how we'd like to keep it.

The one fixed point at the moment is that a number of us will be going to Paternoster Square (literally - the square of Our Father) outside the London Stock Exchange, where as trading starts at 8:00am we will  sound the Shofar - a Jewish animal horn trumpet traditionally sounded at the start of the Day of Atonement, and especially in the year of Jubilee, to signify the release of prisoners and the forgiveness of debts. Then we will  pray the prayer taught by Jesus to His disciples that begins, 'Our Father ...'

We will also pray briefly to bless the people and institutions of the city, and make prophetic proclamations of the change of spiritual government over the City.

Prophetic actions are by their nature often quite brief, so we don't envisage things taking much more than 15 or 20 minutes at the absolute most, though we also recognise that God may lead us to go afterwards to other places in the City to pray, or He may provide opportunities for dialogue and prayer with some of the people working in the City.

We do have one or two other thoughts of places we may pray and sound the Shofar, and we may make some of these known nearer the time.

How can I join in?

Firstly, please DO NOT join us simply because it seems like a good or exciting idea. It is possible that you may be called to bless and release a shift in the spiritual atmosphere over the financial system in your own locality. If that's the case, you need to decide with God what form that might take.

On the other hand if you know God is giving you this assignment, the best thing to do is turn up. Unless you live in London it's going to mean a VERY early start. We will be there doing what He is asking us to do, but we're not planning on organising anything else. If you are there with us, we will be glad to see you and have you join in with whatever we are doing.

We suggest you subscribe to the blog by email to make sure you receive any further updates.