Where God Is Wanted
Palmerston North has a rich spiritual heritage and there has been great unity between the churches for many years. However, in the past few years, there has been a growing hunger for God to move in our city and for church leaders and churches to come together to pray that He would pour out His Spirit in a powerful way.
Three years ago we joined the Pentecost Prayer Initiative as a local church. We hosted a 24-hour prayer room for our church whānau. What a day! People coming in and out of the prayer room all day and our youth praying and worshipping all through the night. Seeing that devotion, that hunger and desire for prayer really set a fire in us so the following year we extended that to 7 days and joined with other churches from around our city to form a combined prayer room. What a week! Christians from all over our city coming in day and night to pray in that space.
Months after the initiative, we were still hearing stories about people encountering God in transforming ways in the prayer room. I was so encouraged, given all the distractions of our age, that people were driving out to the prayer room at times like 1 am on wet, cold nights to pray, sometimes for multiple hours.
While reflecting on that devotion, it reminded me of a stunning message from Jon Tyson on “Wanting the Unwanted God”. In that message, he contrasts two towns: Nazareth, where Jesus grew up, and Bethany, where he visited during his ministry and where his friends, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, lived.
Jon highlights that Nazareth had a culture of rejection, as they were overly familiar with Jesus, the carpenter’s son, to see God in their midst. Consequently, Jesus did very little ministry there. By way of contrast, Jon notes that Bethany had a culture of devotion - just think about that beautiful and extravagant scene of devotion where Mary of Bethany pours a jar of nard (worth like a year’s wages) on Jesus’s feet. In that town, Jesus was loved and honoured; it was a place of refuge for him. We see Jesus moving powerfully in Bethany, with him raising his friend, Lazarus, from the dead in John 11: 1-44, and he ascended to Heaven near this town as well (Luke 24:50-53).
It raises a question for us: what kind of culture are we cultivating? In our own lives and in our churches. Are we shaped by familiarity, or by devotion?
In our age of limitless digital distractions and relentless busyness in all aspects of our lives, coming out to a prayer room at 1 am is an act of defiance, but more than that, it’s a declaration of our heart: about who we really want.
My heart’s desire for Palmerston North, for every city, town and region across Aotearoa, is that we would be places full of people devoted to Jesus. Where hunger to be in his presence, to pray and to see his Kingdom Come is the norm.
I too believe that God moves where he is wanted and history seems to bear this out. Maybe it's my Welsh heritage talking (my grandfather was Welsh), but I've always had a deep affinity for the Welsh Revival of 1904-1905.
For years, largely unseen, Evan Roberts interceded for his homeland. Night after night, early morning after early morning, he cried out to God for Wales. One day, a teenager named Florrie Evans stood up during an ordinary church service and declared aloud:
"I love the Lord Jesus Christ with all my heart."
That declaration was the spark for a powerful move of the Holy Spirit. Within a year, around 100,000 people in Wales had come to faith in Jesus.
Behind the spark was years of hidden prayer. Of devotion. Of wanting more of God.
That’s what the Pentecost Prayer Initiative is about. Creating space for that kind of hunger. That kind of prayer. Making room, together, for God to move.
We are so excited to be joining with churches across Palmerston North and the nation for this year’s Pentecost Prayer Initiative. It feels like we are part of something God is stirring across Aotearoa.
“Lord, would you move in our land. Give us hungry hearts for you. May we pour out our love and devotion to you, as Mary of Bethany did, and see you move in our day.”
Nick Tait
Manawatu Regional Coordinator - 24-7 Prayer NZ
