“Our passion is to imitate the ministry of Jesus in the power of the Spirit”
John Wimber

Guiding Text: Ephesians 1:17-20a 

 
I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father,may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead. 

As Vineyard people we have a deep recognition of our need for the presence and power of the Holy Spirit working in and through our lives in order to live out the mandate given to us by Jesus. For the next several days of the fast we will be focusing on our need to be filled with and empowered by the Holy Spirit. Our Common Prayer over these couple of days will be what is known in Church History as the “Golden Sequence.” Its original format was penned by St. Gregory the Great in 604 AD and was word-smithed into this version in 1128 AD by the Archbishop of Canterbury at that time, Stephen Langton. 
 
Come, Holy Spirit; send down from heaven’s height your radiant light.
Come, lamp of every heart come, parent of the poor; all gifts are yours.
Comforter beyond all comforting, sweet unexpected guest, sweetly refresh.
Rest in hard labour, coolness in heavy heat, hurt souls’ relief.
Refill the secret hearts of your faithful, O most blessed light.
Without your holy power Nothing can bear your light, Nothing is free from sin.
wash all that is filthy, water all that is parched, heal what is hurt within.
bend all that is rigid, warm all that is frozen hard, lead back the lost.
Give virtue its reward, give, in the end, salvation and joy that has no end.
 
Rest
Receive
Reorient
Ruminate
 
We will be gathering, weighing and collating what we sense the Spirit is speaking to us as a people throughout the fast, so we encourage you to send in those reflections and gleanings that you sense are from the Spirit to cathy@vineyard.ca