Butterflies

Last Thursday morning, as six of us gathered in the chapel for 9am Morning Prayer, we were looking back in awe and gratitude for the previous night’s Abbey prayer meeting. Over the last year I have always been moved when a small group, normally in single figures, gathered to intercede for the renewal of the church and for the healing of our world. This month we took a different approach, renamed the meeting ‘Glory!’ and spent nearly an hour in passionate worship, declaring the glory of God, and then continued to seek his face and share the revelation the Spirit gave to us. 45 people came, we left rejoicing, and then at prayers the following morning Psalm 29:9 nudged us back to the previous evening: The voice of the LORD twists the oaks, and strips the forests bare. And in His temple all cry, “Glory!”  We did; we will again.

Many in their prayers received a personal revelation of God’s glory; but there was also a theme of emergence, a parcel being unwrapped, barriers coming down, and particularly the image of the butterfly coming forth from a chrysalis. Emerging from the chrysalis for freedom in Christ (Galatians 5:1), the church emerging from darkness into light (with the red on wings symbolizing the blood of Christ), the church’s wings being strengthened as it struggled to emerge from the chrysalis, and the created existing to worship the Creator signified in the beauty of a butterfly. For myself, and for many others, the very gathering of so many to declare God’s glory and to intercede was an emergence for the Abbey, and a profound encouragement for the journey ahead – for which we interceded for an anointing of lips to praise and proclaim the gospel, and prayed with expectance that God will stretch out his hand to heal (Acts 4:30,31.) There is so much more to say and share, but this is offered to encourage you to rest this summer and prepare for the harvest ahead.

A couple of tourists visited the Abbey on Wednesday night as I prepared for the meeting. I explained to them that I was setting up for a prayer meeting, that the Abbey wasn’t a ruin and neither was the vicar. After their dinner in town the couple popped back and heard our final prayers, our glorious final song (In Christ alone) and stayed as I pronounced the final blessing. They came up to me and simply said ‘you must be a very happy man.’ They were right.