With the launching of the 40-day Fasting and Prayer, we have started to intercede for Europe. Last month, C-Mo and I took a trip to Switzerland with our two prophetesses and experienced God’s wonderful guidance.
As early as seven years ago, we had been to Europe with our curator staff and at that time, the Holy Spirit suddenly moved C-Mo into a heart-rending wailing. In prayer, we felt God’s deep sorrow for the desolation of Europe. On the surface, Europe is beautiful and life is comfortable, but the hearts of the people are indeed hardened and resistant. There were once many churches here, but now many are vacant or repurposed, no longer gathering people to worship God. Europe is in desperate need of revival!
This year, after visiting Africa and Central America, God opened the way for us to revisit Europe. During our journey, the Holy Spirit led us to the Grossmünster Cathedral in Zurich. As I sat down to pray, I was filled with emotion and shed tears. Historically, Ulrich Zwingli, the Catholic priest of the church, was influenced by humanism and participated in the Reformation, and became a Protestant. However, he still insisted on infant baptism. Some of his contemporary reformers, such the Mennonites, advocated for baptism based on faith. They held differing views, and as a result, Zwingli reacted against the Anabaptists with intense persecution, declaring them heretics. Many Anabaptists sacrificed their lives, and the Mennonites were forced to flee to Ukraine. After World War II, some of them immigrated to North America and established the Mennonite Brethren Church. The church I pastored in Vancouver was originated from the Mennonite Brethren Church, and I was later ordained as a pastor. Over the years, I have been deeply influenced by one of the teachings of the Mennonite Brethren, “love and non-resistance.” Throughout my life, I insisted on it and when facing various attacks, I respond with love and non-resistance.
Now, in the Grossmünster, God used my identity as a Mennonite pastor and the Holy Spirit moved me to represent the Mennonite believers to forgive Zwingli and other persecutors in the Spirit, asking the Lord for mercy. It felt as if I had returned to history, opening up the grudges and hatred between denominations, allowing God’s love and healing to flow in. I said to God, “Lord, please spare us from all persecution, bring peace among us, and let us treat each other with love and non-resistance. Now that You have elevated and renewed our understanding of the Gospel, please lead us to connect with the Chinese Church in their mission to bring the Gospel back to Jerusalem, and to spread the Gospel again and plant the Trees of Life everywhere!”
After we prayed, we went to the top of the church tower. Our two prophetesses declared in their prayers that the wind of the Holy Spirit would sweep through Europe again to renew it and that people’s hearts would turn back to God! I believe that as we earnestly pray for Europe according to God’s will, revival will surely return to Europe!■【2024.10.06】