Theme For 2022 - Enlarge The Place of Your Tent

In 2022 we are sensing that God is speaking to us about 'Enlarging The Place of Our Tent' (Isaiah 54: 2). This means God is calling us each as the people of God to our full capacity; we might not know what that is or how we can get there but because God is saying it, He will do it.

This is about stepping out in faith even if we feel we don't have the energy or resources (Isaiah 54: 1). Good examples of this are Jesus with the feeding of the 5000 (Matthew 14: 13 - 21). 'You give them something to eat', Jesus said. But the disciples  only had 5 loaves and 2 fish from a small boys lunch. Or the widow who was about to get her children taken away because of a debt. Elijah asked her to find containers so God could fill them with oil so she could pay off her debt (2 Kings 4: 1 - 7).

This year God is saying to us that we are to move in actions of faith, where we stretch our capacity and He will meet the need. He will supply the emotional or physical strength. The Lord will supply the materials or finances needed. He will supply the relationships needed and the spiritual strength. All we need to do is offer what we have to him and he will increase our capacity. 

What Do We Need To Do?

We will need to be obedient to Jesus; the obedience of faith is key (Romans 1: 5). It's not about lots of self-effort or 'virtue signalling' but being governed by the Spirit of God (Romans 8: 14). As King Saul discovered, obedience is better than sacrifice (1 Samuel 15: 22).

As we engage with God and strengthen our tent pegs, by rooting them firmly in Christ we will see ourselves flourishing (Isaiah 54: 2). This does not mean things won't be hard or traumatic but it does mean we will see God bring about His purposes, His provision and increase, supernaturally. He is El Shaddai - God Almighty - the 'All Sufficient One', He is our Husband, our Maker (Is 54: 5) and He won't abandon us.

However, this will be a walk of faith. As the disciples and the widow had to offer what they had in the boys lunch and jar containers, so we have to make available what we have; our time, talent and treasure so God can increase them supernaturally.

So let's not hold back our hearts from God this year because He will increase our capacity and cause us to change the world as we pray, share his gospel, disciple new believers and serve Him and His world.

I truly believe the church, God's people, you and me, are the hope for our troubled world. So we need to lead the way in 2022 to demonstrate God's power, truth and steadfast love.

As Archbishop Desmond Tutu (who has just died) once said, 'Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.'

Like the heroes of faith that have gone before us and seen great change; Susanna and Charles Wesley, Charles Spurgeon,  Billy Graham, Desmond Tutu; we too can see transformation as we enlarge the place of our tent, our capacity. 

Reflecting on 2021 by Alex Afriyie

We began 2021 as LNC (London Network Church) with the word Shalom. Shalom meaning peace, well-being and wholeness. It has been a whirlwind of a year with various reports of Covid, the ups and downs of restrictions, lock-downs, political turmoil, conspiracies and mistrust of those in power. 

This has affected people’s mental health, finances, family gatherings and general well-being. One of the positive things we have seen is a great increase in the amount of people seeking God and coming to Christ. We need to have our anchor somewhere and natural things are seeming to be less and less stable. 

Many have wanted to gather together and when we have been allowed to, real deep fellowship has been appreciated. We’ve worshipped together, eat together, had BBQs and biblical feasts. We’ve seen marriages this year and rejoiced in the birth of new babies. 

Despite the pressures we continued with livestream and in person services and it has caused many people to deepen their relationship with God and each other. We thank God we were able to minister to people online through our well-being shalom clinic. It was great to be able to be there to listen and pray with people as they shared their concerns. 

It’s also been great to see the increase in people coming to faith, getting baptised and joining life groups this year. We have especially seen an increase in the 20 to 35 age group this year in our church. 

As we enter 2022, let’s continue to put our faith in Jesus, the rock who never fails us. As an old chorus says, ‘Though the winds may blow and the rains may fall, He will never let go of your hand!’ 

‘…That they may be called oaks of righteousness [lofty, strong, and magnificent, distinguished for uprightness, justice, and right standing with God], the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified (for the display of His splendour NIV). (Isaiah 61: 3 AMPC)

SHALOM IN 2021 By Alex Afriyie

As we sought the Lord for a Word for 2021 at London Network Church, we felt that God was speaking to us about Shalom. Shalom is the Hebrew Old Testament word that we translate ‘Peace’. But a fuller way of understanding this word would be our modern understanding of ‘Well Being’ and ‘Wholeness’. God’s peace affects not only our inner being but can extend to the whole of society. It means peace, harmony, wholeness, completeness, prosperity, welfare and tranquillity. We as believers are to carry that peace (John 14: 27) despite what is happening in the whirlwind of world events. We are to demonstrate the harmony of peace because ‘Christ is our peace’, and He has made us all one in our diversity (Ephesians 2: 14).

When quoting Isaiah 61, Jesus made clear in Luke 4: 18 – 19, that the Spirit of the Lord had anointed Him to preach the gospel to both the physically and spiritually poor (Matthew 5: 3 & Luke 6: 20) and heal the broken hearted, those with the deepest emotional and psychological needs. Jesus is there to heal, to deliver people spirit, soul and body. To meet spiritual, emotional, physical and even social needs.

In the 1700s Wesley referred to Is 61 in his revival which came immediately after great difficulty and unrest. Out of unrest came a great revival that affected the whole of society.

After the unrest of 2020 (e.g. Covid, justice Issues, Brexit) I believe that God wants us as sons and daughters of God, as ‘anointed ones’, to bring healing to people’s whole beings, meeting their spiritual, psychological, physical and relational needs through the Good News. We can preach and demonstrate the year of the Lord’s favour. This will happen through what we say, how we serve, through providing a listening ear, offering prayer and supplying access to healing communities.

One of the things we are looking to provide this year is a regular healing clinic for the community where people can share their needs and receive healing, prophetic word, a listening ear and practical help. It is time for the nations in London, the UK and the world, to say, ‘…Let us go up to ….the house of …God… and He will teach us His ways’ (Isaiah 2: 2 – 4).

The world is hurting (Romans 8: 19 – 22); I believe that as we arise with courageous love and faith as the church and as individual believers, we will have something unique and healing to bring to the world in 2021. SHALOM!

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.
2 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.
3 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

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

A Culture of Discipleship – Evangelism, Discipleship & Miracles in 2019

2018

This has been an amazing year of acceleration in the presence of God. He has asked us to step into His presence and step out in His power and we have seen how God has promoted people and shifted people into positions and places where he wanted them to be. This has not been without disturbance and we have had to align ourselves spiritually and grow in character to handle the movement of God in our lives. A parallel has been the political movement in the nation with Brexit. But our trust is that God is shifting things for his glory in our lives, the church and the nation. We have emphasised stepping into the presence of God and stepping out in his power as presence-based ambassadors. I think the main thing we have learned is that we have to rest in the presence of God and have our minds set on the Spirit to be full of life and peace and to accelerate (Romans 8: 6). The alternative is to do things with a mind set on the flesh, (that is in our own strength and initiative devoid of reliance on God’s Spirit), but the results are death; that sense of being spiritually cut off and dry leading to being over stressed, depressed and burnt out.

2019

As we come to 2019 we have heard God speaking to us as core leaders in LNC about Evangelism, Discipleship and Miracles. We truly believe that it is time for the harvest (the evidence suggests people are spiritually hungry and are responding to God in the UK). So far over 13,000 people have responded to the gospel on the

streets of the UK and parts of Europe through the Turning since May 2016. The launch of the Turning will be significant for London and LNC as we reap on the streets in September.

GET READY, GET READY, GET READY

It's time to expand our hearts (2 Cor 6: 13), prepare our life groups (Acts 2: 42-47), and adjust our timetables to be able to disciple those who will come in. We want to develop a discipleship culture. In the midst of this we believe miracles will become common place, God breaking into the natural and taking us into deeper dimensions of His Spirit. As we saw in 2018, we believe we will

continue to see miracles of healing, financial provision and breakthrough in places of influence. Christians are now being moved into places of influence to advance the Kingdom in every mountain & sphere of society. We trust that through the turmoil of the Brexit process God will position the nation for blessing as people choose to look to Him as their ultimate government.

Scriptures to Meditate on:

John 4: 35 - Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.

Matthew 9: 36 - 38 - 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

Matthew 28: 18 - 20 - 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

2 Timothy 2: 2 - 2 And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.

Mark 16: 20 - Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.

Alex Afriyie

Step-In Step-Out in 2018

As we have sought the Lord for 2018 as a core leadership team at LNC, we have felt God speaking to us about His presence. We are to ‘step in’ to His presence and then from being empowered and built up in His presence we are to ‘step out’ as His ambassadors to touch lives around us. As we experience Jesus in His power and presence we have the scent of Him on us and His presence changes everyone it meets.

How do we step into the presence of God and step out empowered? 
As a young man I prayed without power. Then one day someone showed me how to give my life to the Lord. Although I knew I was forgiven I didn’t know Jesus power to overcome sin. Then I learnt about the Holy Spirit:

Acts 1: 8 – ‘You Shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has comes upon you and you shall be my witnesses…’ This totally transformed my life:

• I couldn’t help but live for Jesus – I loved his presence and would spend hours with Jesus in prayer, praise, thanks, intercession, tears and laughter,
• I couldn’t help but obey his Word to me. Everything He said seemed so clear and powerful and I didn’t want to let Him down.
• I found him releasing me from impurities as a teenager and literally felt unclean things leaving me.
• I found a new boldness to share the gospel and saw my brothers, sister, mum, gangs at school and teenage girls and boys as well as the dying come to know the Lord.
• Again, myself along with others saw the sick healed.

So how can we step into the presence of God and stay there each day in 2018?

1) By Faith – 2 Corinthians 5: 7 – ‘For we walk by faith not by sight’. How does faith come? By hearing God’s word. Hearing God’s rhema (creative word). Spend time this year based in Scripture. Listen to God every day. Meditate on His Word every day. Sometimes it will seem dry, but it is food to your inner most parts. Ps. 119: 11 says ‘Thy word have I hidden in my

heart that I may not sin against you’. Ps. 119: 130 ‘The entrance of your word gives light, it gives understanding to the simple.’ When you meditate on the Word even for 10 minutes a day you will find that it will empower you from the inside out and clear your mind and transform your thinking. You will make decisions bathed in God’s presence and will.

2) Make it your ambition to please the Lord – 2 Corinthians 5: 9 – 10 – Realise you have a purpose on the earth and a destiny to fulfil. Every day have the attitude that you are going to find out and fulfil a little bit more of that purpose that God has for you today. Consider that we must all appear before Christ and give an account. Although, we know we are saved by grace (thank God), but it will be great to stand before Jesus having fulfilled our purpose on the earth. Don’t let any fear of other’s opinions stop you fulfilling your destiny. It is Christ you will ultimately account to.

3) Let the Love of Christ control you – 2 Corinthians 5: 14 – You see God is love and he has demonstrated unconditional love ultimately in Christ dying in our place. We love because God first loved us (1 John 4: 19). In my life I have found myself empowered to love others because I know how much I am loved by the Father. It has helped me to love guys on the streets that no one else cared for and weep for them and see them come to know Jesus. Always remember to love and forgiven others – whether family or enemies. Step out as an ambassador of God’s powerful love.

4) See things from God’s perspective in the spirit – 2 Cor 5: 15 – 17 – People are either in Christ or not. He died for them all. We should now recognise people the way Christ recognises them. That includes ourselves as new creations, our brothers and sisters as new

creations. And the ultimate need of someone who doesn’t yet know Christ as the need to be a new creation. We can help improve someone’s habits, education or wealth but ultimately, they need Christ’s life-giving presence inside them to really live life to the full.

5) See yourself as an ambassador of Christ with a message – 2 Cor 5: 18 – 21 – You have had the word of reconciliation placed in you. The New Age Movement and people in general are trying to bring the message of hope and positivity without Christ. But it only makes sense in Christ. He loves you. ‘He became sin ….so that you might be made the righteousness of God in Christ’. We are carriers of His presence and ambassadors of that Good News. ‘God is not holding your wrongs against you’. 

It’s time to be presence-based ambassadors this year! ‘Step-in’ to His presence! ‘Step-out’ empowered to touch lives and see them transformed!