Thursday 31 December 2020

What A Year 2020 Has Been? By Alex Afriyie

Who could have imagined at the beginning of 2020 that we would have been dealing with the corona virus, race and justice issues worldwide and the possible end of a Trump presidency.

Photo by Julian Wan 

What has God been doing through all these things?

Well at the beginning of this year we felt that God gave us Isaiah 60 1 - 3 as a church:

Arise, shine; for your light has come,
And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
For behold, darkness will cover the earth
And deep darkness the peoples;
But the Lord will rise upon you
And His glory will appear upon you.
Nations will come to your light,
And kings to the brightness of your rising.

We had the prophetic theme on our hearts, 'Living the Kingdom Life' and a global theme 'Better Together'.

I really believe that this interprets what God wanted for us this year. 

To arise in the darkness and show up strong as Christian's knowing that our light (the light of Jesus shining in our hearts - 2 Corinthians 4: 6) has come.

Darkness speaks of ignorance produced by sin (a state of rebellion and separation from God), but light speaks of revelation and clarity and peace.

This has been a year where as the people of God we have had to learn again to make God our source of security and then courageously be present to serve the world in love and power. The world has needed our love and unity in the midst of political disunity (including Brexit), racial disharmony and suspicion surrounding the Covid virus.

I hope this year you have arisen in leadership, compassion and your unique spiritual and natural gifts and made a difference to your family, friends, church, neighbourhood and sphere of influence in the market place. 

People living in darkness need us as the church to speak clearly about the dignity of all human beings, the availability of help and healing in Jesus and the Kingdom of God that is greater than any earthly political party or movement.

I hope you've had the courage to stand for the kingdom of God and not get bogged down with the enemies agenda of division and fear.

Photo by Julian Wan

Wednesday 1 January 2020

Living the Kingdom Life in 2020



As we have sought the Lord together in LNC we have felt that this New Year will be one of living the kingdom life together. To live the kingdom life means to live out king Jesus’ life in our everyday lives and to be persistent with that. It means arising and shining for our light has come and recognising that the glory of the Lord has risen upon us (Isaiah 60: 1).

To live in the benefit of this we have to first realise that as New Covenant believers our light has come. This light (owr in Hebrew) is illumination, and symbolises salvation, prosperity, wisdom and justice. Jesus said, ‘I am the light of the world, whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life’ (John 8: 12). With all the confusion today personally, morally, emotionally, politically, relationally and financially, we are given light in the darkness so we can clearly see the way and show the way.

John Piper said, ‘in the light of Christ, is the brightness of God shining on the retina of the human soul’. We can see clearly now the light has come (pun intended).  Jesus explained it this way, ‘You are the light of the world’ (John 5: 14). So, people can recognise God through the light and glory (Kabod in Hebrew) on us. This glory is weighty, honourable, majestic, esteeming and a manifestation of God’s nature. It totally contradicts and overcomes the fear, division and despair we see in our world currently.

2019 was a year of great harvest for us in LNC and in London as a whole, where we saw over 1144 people respond to the gospel through the Turnings street evangelism and give their names and details in to be followed up. We saw unity in churches working together. We also saw many new ones coming into our congregation. We were surprised as we experienced the harvest and learnt to move in our authority and gained confidence in the power of the gospel (Matthew 28: 18 – 20 & Romans 1: 16).

So we believe arising this year for LNC will involve being faithful to disciple the new believers God is bringing in, being ready to rise into leadership, being ready to intentionally spend time praying together regularly, and being ready to take our mountain of influence for Christ, whether that is in family life, church, work, business, community work, education, media or arts and entertainment. Therefore, we need to be ready to support each other in doing this.
Will you be found living the Kingdom Life together with others this year? Will you arise in the areas that God has called you to?

‘…..who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns.’ (Luke 12: 42 – 43)

Pastor Alex Afriyie

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