Note: For many decades Trevor Perry and his wife Linda have generously served as senior leaders and prayer warrior intercessors in the Antioch Community in London, UK and the wider Sword of the Spirit as well. Their enthusiastic zeal, warm-hearted love and generous care and concern for others, easily won the affection of all who came in contact with them. They were daily prayer warriors for their family, friends, and brothers and sisters in the Sword of the Spirit. The following testimony from the past is one example of their readiness to pray and intercede wherever opportunity came â even if it meant spending a few days in an old army barracks with a few hundred university age people from communities and outreaches worldwide. – editor
God hears intercessory prayers
In the summer of 2011 my wife Linda and I had the privilege to attend a Kairos sponsored Adelante Conference being held in Spain.
One may ask: âWhy were these aged âbaby boomersâ asked to attend this young peopleâs Kairos event?â
It certainly wasnât our good looks or our energy they were after, it was our conviction that prayer works, as the Message Bible translation puts it in the Gospel of Mark:
âJesus was blunt: âNo chance at all if you think you can pull it off by yourself. Every chance in the world if you let God do it.ââ
Mark 10:27
We were asked to pray.
We arrived two days before the Conference whilst Prep 10 was taking place. We walked the vast grounds of this bizarre location â a military base in the Basque region of Spain â praying for an advancement of the kingdom of God. Our surroundings helped remind us that we are in a real battle, especially a battle for the hearts and minds of our young people. As we joined with others it became obvious that together in prayer everything is possible.
God invites us all to be co-laborers in his work
Now of course God could do whatever he chooses without our prayer. But for some reason he has invited all of us to be his co-laborers. God has determined that he will use the prayers of his people to accomplish his purposes on this earth.
We are convinced that his kingdom was advanced at the Adelante Conference in Spain. We saw our wonderful young people respond to invitation after invitation to lay down their lives for their Lord. We saw unlimited potential displayed before us. Faces of children and grandchildren reflecting their parentsâ and grandparentsâ zeal for God. These are young people we can be proud of, young people called to make a difference. A people to show the world how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Jesus Christ.
I think that something very important did happen in Adelante in Spain. I donât think things will be the same again for us in our communities in the Sword of the Spirit. We can be confident that Almighty God has our young people in the palm of his hand and that he has huge plans for them. And through them he aims to advance his kingdom and do more with them as part of an international community of communities than we could have asked or imagined.
Let us pray for our young people that God continue to strengthen and equip them in following his call.
This article was first published in the November 2011 Issue of Living Bulwark.
Top image credit: Illustration of young man in humble prayer, from ChristianPhotoshop.com, © by Kevin Carden. Used with permission.
Trevor Perry, and his wife Linda (d. 2022), have served for many decades as senior leaders in Antioch Community, London, UK.