One Heart - Together as OneSample

One Heart Introduction

We are so glad you have decided to join in on this One Heart prayer guide towards Reconciliation and Oneness. This is week four of seven. If you have not participated before, consider starting with One Heart: Father Let Them Be One. This guide is not limited to racial reconciliation but reconciliation across the board (i.e. family, denomination, marriage, etc.) and it can be used in contexts across the globe. We know that the Holy Spirit will work mightily on the hearts of all who choose to journey with this guide.

One of the last prayers Jesus Christ prayed while He walked this earth as a human being is recorded in John 17:20b - 22 (NIV) “… 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 Word says that if we know our brother has something against us, we need to go and make right. It is time to acknowledge, repent, and make right the sins of the past or in some cases to forgive as the Lord forgave you (Colossians 3:13).

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. Only when we do that can 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.

TOGETHER AS ONE: FEARLESS, BOLD, CONFIDENT AND READY

“To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that He has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in Him.” Ephesians 3:8-12 ESV

CORPORATE PRAYER (Ideally)

Heavenly Father, according to your eternal purpose, your manifold wisdom should be made known by the church to the principalities and powers of darkness (Eph.3:10). Thank You that through the blood of Jesus Christ, we have redemption and forgiveness of sin; You have delivered us from the power of darkness and have transferred us to the kingdom of your beloved Son (Col.1:13-14). We are more than conquerors because of Your love for us. For neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor any other created thing can separate us from the love of God (Rom.8:37-39). Lord Jesus Christ, Head of the Church, You have given us the authority over all the power of the enemy so that the spirits are subject to us (Luke 10:19-20). You have given us the command to go the nations with this good news, to open the eyes of unbelievers, to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they too might receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who believe in You (Luk.9:1-2; Mat.28:18,19; Act.26:17,18). The weapons that You have given us are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ (2Cor.10:4,5). We stand in this evil day, having girded our waists with truth; protected by the breastplate of righteousness and the helmet of salvation; our feed shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. We take up our shields of faith with which we are able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one, and the sword of the Spirit, the Word God, as we pray and resist the evil one (Eph.6:10-18; Jam.4:7; 1Pet.5:9). We will overcome because of the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony, and because we do not love our lives even if we have to die (Rev 12:11). Greater is He that is in us than He that is in the world (1Joh.4:4).

John 17 was Jesus' prayer for His disciples the night before He was betrayed. It is still His prayer today. We want to encourage you to memorise 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.

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” – Martin Luther King Jr., “Strength to Love”.