GUIDE INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the One Heart prayer journey towards reconciliation and oneness. This is week 6 of a 7 week series. If you have been journeying with us, please feel free to jump to the study part today. If you have not, you will certainly benefit from this week. We would like to encourage you to start at Week one or to move there after this week, (One Heart : Father Let Them Be One).

This One Heart series is based on one of the last prayers Jesus Christ prayed while He walked this earth as a human being“… I pray that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us.” Jesus also said in John 13, that if we love one another the world will know that we are His disciples. To truly love one another we need to intentionally reach out to one another.

The unity Jesus prayed for is very difficult to achieve because Christians all over the world are so fractured and divided. What must encourage us, however, is that if He prayed it, it must be possible. Time and time again there are testimonies of God’s Spirit breaking through all the divisions, as we surrender to Him, die to self, and choose love. It is only when we do that, that we see how the Love that covers a multitude of sins starts flowing through us to bring healing and wholeness. It is a daily decision. May we become less, so that He can become more; so that we can be One with Him and one another; so that the world may know that we are truly His disciples.

FATHER, SON AND SPIRIT ARE ONE

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in Me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as You are in Me and I am in You. May they also be in Us so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. I have given them the glory that You gave Me, that they may be one as We are one; I in them and You in Me, so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that You sent me and have loved them even as You have loved Me. Father, I want those You have given Me to be with Me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory You have given Me because You loved Me before the creation of the world.” John 17:20-24 NIV

Before the world began, Father, Son and Holy Spirit were living eternally in an amazing circle of relationship. Consider some of the characteristics of the way they relate to one another: love, trust, mutual respect, affection, enjoying and celebrating one another, perfect unity, supporting each other, working together towards the same goals, confidence in each other, interest in each other, teamwork, co labourers, open communication with each other, honouring and esteeming one another, always there for each other, different in role but totally interdependent. What we see here is perfect love with each one complementing the other. Though they are one in substance, in their Person they are not identical. But being different was never a problem, it is what makes them Father, Son and Holy Spirit! What we see in its most perfect form is unity in diversity. There is no competitiveness, no power struggle, no one threatened by anyone else, no one trying to dominate, no one jealous of anyone, no conflict of interest. Here is the model of perfect relationships, enjoying one another throughout eternity. Healing Hearts Transforming Nations. Rhiannon Lloyd.

CORPORATE PRAYER (Ideally)

HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, are You, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We believe that You are one, and You determined before the creation of the world, to create us as humans to be one with You in Christ. Our unity with You is Christ in us and You in Him (Joh.17:23). Father, we desire to be brought to complete unity, to overcome all the hindrances and divisions that prevent us to come to this unity. We confess and agree that all of us that were baptized in the Name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, should be one. Please forgive us Father, for not taking this oneness serious, making it our aim, to be reconciled with Christians from all other tribes, races and nations. Please forgive us for harboring resentment, unforgiveness, prejudice, even hatred, in our hearts against other Christians. Please forgive us where we have not honored, protected, or prayed for one another, carried one another's burdens, or loved one another as Jesus had commanded us. Please transform our hearts and make us one, as You are one. Amen.

John 17 was Jesus' prayer for His disciples the night before He was betrayed. It is still His prayer today. We would like to encourage you to memorize the chapter of John 17 or at least the verses that speak to your heart, to pray it daily and to ask that Jesus' prayer would be fulfilled in you and through you.

“O Lord God Almighty . . . I bless you and glorify you through the eternal and heavenly high priest Jesus Christ, your beloved Son, through whom be glory to you, with Him and the Holy Spirit, both now and forever."-Polycarp (70-155/160). Bishop of Smyrna. Disciple of John the Apostle.