Good songs can last for generations. In the case of the old Irish hymn Be Thou My Vision it has been around for over 1200 years and still new versions keep coming!

It’s a traditional Irish Christian hymn, but is now sung in English-speaking churches around the world. In fact it is the world’s most popular Irish hymn.

According to Wikipedia it was written by Dallan Forgaill in the 8th century; although the text had been a part of Irish monastic tradition for centuries before the hymn itself was written. It was translated from Old Irish Gaelic into English by Mary E. Byrne in “Eriú”, Journal of the School of Irish Learning, in 1905.

I came across a unique version by Andy Rogers from the Causeway Coast of Ireland recently. He did a contemporary guitar driven recording and is giving it away free.

He talks about the amazing responses he has had to the song in such diverse venues as churches, orphanages and even night clubs and bars.

Check out his ‘Ethno-Celt’ version here:

You may or may not be aware that a campaign has been launched to extend Great Britain’s abortion law to Northern Ireland even though the move is opposed by all four of our major political parties in our Province. A number of MPs in Great Britain with the support of the Progressive Unionist Party here have tabled an amendment to the Human Fertilization and Embryology Bill which would impose legalized abortion here.

I am writing this to ask you to pray about this issue and also to consider
signing the petition at http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Anti-Abortion/?showall=1

Also there is a National Day of Prayer about abortion on Monday 27th October on the date of the 41st Anniversary of the passing of the Abortion Act. See the web site www.imagenet.org.uk

Introduction:
This is a word that I was given by God in 2002 but I feel to re-release it now. I believe this to be a word initially for Ireland, but will also apply to other countries.

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There is a new monasticism coming to the Church in Ireland.

It is first of all a monasticism of the heart - a heart that communes deeply with God - not superficial throwaway prayers, but an intimacy that transcends lifestyle and culture. It is a return to the ‘Practise of the Presence of God‘, as it has been called; that intimacy that is born out of many hours of solitude and soaking in the very presence of God. This in turn will lead to a quickened awareness of the presence of God in everyday situations - at work, at school, in the home and in the community. It is deep communion with God even in the midst of chaos.
This new Monasticism will operate on 2 levels:

1) An Attitude of Heart

In the hearts of all believers who will commit themselves to the changes necessary in lifestyle:

- more time spent in the presence of God, saturating in his very life,
- a shift from petition to waiting and listening,
- embracing fasting as a way of life,
- dealing with the impurities that impede his holiness.

In essence, this entails embracing all of the qualities and strengths of the former monks, yet living them out within the cultural context.

Qualities and Strengths:

Solitude
Community
Discipline
Hard Working Attitude
Mercy and Justice
Holiness
Sacrifice,
Simple lifestyle,
etc.

I felt the Lord highlight 2 key strengths of the former monastic lifestyle - Solitude and Community. These seem to be almost opposites yet when put together make up a whole. Solitude - spending many hours alone with God is complimented by the strength in unity of many others who have been alone with God too. Those who commit their lives to this solitude of heart will need the support and fellowship of others to enable them to translate their experience into the living reality needed to live it out in their everyday lives.

For the majority of believers the call is to a deeper level and walk with God within their existing situations.

2) An Actual, Literal Monastic Lifestyle

Yet I believe that God will call some to an actual physical monastic lifestyle, seeing the re-establishment of residential community life that embraces all of the qualities of the former monasteries, yet living within the modern cultural context. This will involve an embracing, not rejection, of culture and society, working with what is good and right, and seeking to redeem cultural ways that are not forbidden by the Lord. Thus, it will be common to see a fusion of inner city communities, marrying up of modern forms of music, art and culture with the spiritual disciplines such as solitude and silence, worship, service and fellowship. This will produce a dynamic expression of God incarnating in the culture, permeating, sanctifying and redeeming all around. This will be a very attractive expression to those who don’t yet know Jesus. These communities will only happen though if those who are called to live in them will first embrace wholeheartedly the call to adopt the Attitude of Heart.

The primary purpose of these modern day monasteries is to be Houses of Prayer with God calling many to give themselves to worship and prayer on 24 hour a day cycles. Prayer and worship will be the powerhouse of these communities yet they will be holistic centres, embracing the call to redeem the whole of creation from its bondage to decay (Romans 8). So works of mercy, care for those in poverty, speaking up for justice, healing of the sick, mission and teaching will all be part of the whole package.

Gateway Ministries was formed in September 2000 and is based in Northern Ireland.

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PLEASE NOTE:

Gateway Ministries is NOT currently active but we are keeping this web site online in the meantime as there are resources, such as teachings and downloads that we would like to keep making available. This includes amalgamating archived posts from 2 blogs into the one blog.

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The vision is to see a literal 24 hours a day, 365 days a year Worship and Prayer Centre (like the Tabernacle of David [Acts 15]) established in Ireland.

In these End Times God is restoring the order of worship established in the Tabernacle of David as prophesied by the prophet Amos (Chapter 9). We are but one part of this restoration. There are many on this island who have the same vision. We seek to network with other ministries, individuals, groups and churches, and lead worship at other venues.

This web site will give you a feel of the vision, perspectives and goals.

Please read this amazing article: http://www.breakingchristiannews.com/articles/display_art.html?ID=2813.

The title on the web site says it all:

While Rabbis Make Call to Pray Psalm 83 - Ancient Book of Psalms Found in Ireland Bog, Open to Same Psalm

We were excited by the way that God blessed this time of 72 hours of worship. Before this the longest that we had run a worship gathering was 24 hours. Yet when we had been planning this many months ago we prayed and asked God what he wanted us to do. The clear answer was “3 days”

It started at 8pm on Friday night and finished at 8pm on the Monday night. The worship started with an hour of very anointed, intimate devotional worship led by Diane Hill from Athlone. Diane has organised Prayer Watch Ireland - a period of 40 days of night and day prayer - over the last few years. The worship ended on the Monday night in a similar vein with very prophetic, yet devotional worship from Joy Ryan.

A time of extremely anointed breakthrough high praises came on the Sunday evening (after 50 hours of worship). This was led by Shelton Brown, who is from Alabama, USA, yet has been living in the Christian Renewal Centre with his wife, Samantha, and their 3 children for the past 9 months. He was accompanied by Samantha and 2 friends from Colorado, Nori and Barbie Kelly, who had flown over specifically to be here for the worship weekend. There was a very deep level of intercession that came forth during this time, to the point where Shelton’s 2 hour session lasted 3 and a half hours!!! The presence of the Holy Spirit was very tangibly there.

There was an ebb and flow during the worship throughout the whole 72 hours, ranging from intimate, devotional worship to dancing, exaltation and intense warfare. There were also times of weeping and deep intercession, which seemed to take us by surprise and led us to intercede for Ireland. There was prophetic worship and new songs released. We had planned to do some structured times of intercession but this didn’t happen as there was such an anointing for intercession throughout the worship that structured prayer wasn’t necessary. Prayer flowed from themes that emerged during worship, often just from a line in a song.

Worship was led in either 1 or 2 hour sessions. There was a wide variety and range of styles, from single acoustic guitar or keyboards to full bands with drums, bass, electric guitars and trumpets. There was a good mix of young and older worship leaders involved. It was also a time of stretching for many. Some worship leaders commented afterwards that they had enjoyed the opportunity to lead worship for extended periods. Leading worship for 2 hours was a new experience for some.

There was never masses of people there at any one time but those who did come were struck by the presence of God. Some said that the weekend was a life changing experience. People came from many parts of Ireland, both North and South, from Waterford, Athlone, Omagh, Dublin, Dungannon, Belfast, Bangor, Portadown, Limavady to name but a few.

We need to say a very big ˜Thank You” to all at the Christian Renewal Centre as we couldn’t have done this without them. Also, a very special thank you to all the worship leaders who took part, to everyone who came to worship and all who have supported us in prayer. We are currently seeking God for direction for the way forward. We don’t believe God intends this to be a one-off event!

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On Sunday 4th June 2006 the 2nd Global Day of Prayer in Belfast took place. I don’t intend to describe the full day’’s event, but seek to tell you about it from my perspective. I took part with the local Psalm Drummers group as we played the piece called ”Reconcile”.

The piece starts with a battle between a Lambeg drum and a Bodhran. For those of you who don’t understand the significance of this I shall briefly explain here - the Lambeg drum has come to be identified with the struggles of the Loyalist tradition in Northern Ireland, whilst the Bodhran has become identified with the Republican / Nationalist tradition. (That’s an over-simplification but there really isn’t time to expand it here). Each drum played a short rhythm and images associated with the tradition associated with it were displayed on screen. This took the form of a duel - who could be the loudest and proudest? Then for a few seconds the 2 drums played in unison, giving a glimmer of hope that played together they are stronger.

A poem was read out, after which I blew the Shofar, signifying a calling on God to come and bring about reconciliation in our land and as a breakthrough cry. The drums picked up a steady pulse, resounding a simple ”dum-dum” heartbeat in unison, signifying God’’s heartbeat for Ireland. This built up with a couple of other drummers sounding out a prayer “Our Father, who is in heaven. Hallowed be Your Name”. Then the Lambeg and Bodhran and all the drums played together in unity.

There was a real sense of breakthrough as we played. 2 drums that have been in many ways symbolic of sectarian division now stood together with a different heartbeat as a prophetic statement that God is able to do all things in bringing together that which in the natural seems impossible to reconcile.

Vision: “A Bowl of Fire”

In April 2005 I saw a vision of a large bowl of fire (like in the Olympic Games). From it people were running out with torches with fire burning from them.

There was a constant stream of them. Then I saw coming behind them skeletons. These too were holding torches. On the burning torches there was written “the fire on the altar must never go out (Leviticus 6 v.13)”.

The vision progressed. Now I saw the same bowl of fire but the people coming out of it were dressed like Roman soldiers in full battle dress - helmets, breastplates etc. In one hand they held burning torches, in the other hand a sword. The skeletons were the same.

Then the vision changed again. Now those who had come from the fire turned round towards the fire. From the fire rose a throne, on which was seated a king in full robes. The people bowed down to worship the king. As they did the light shone from the throne. The light touched the ground and made seed grow that had been previously planted. I saw small green shoots sprouting up and also fields of corn growing tall. I saw weeds that were planted among the corn shrivel and die and a hole appear in the black clouds above.

Interpretation:

I asked God what the skeletons represented. He said that they represent those whose vision and dreams had died but would be rejuvenated in the fire. They are the spiritually dead - both those who are part of churches, even active and involved yet their passion has gone, and those who have chosen not to follow the Lord anymore. They would come forth victorious with renewed vision, passion and dreams.

This vision came to me a few weeks after being at the European Worship Tabernacle gathering
in Switzerland in March 2005. I believe that God is looking for those who will worship Him night and day across Europe. Many now describe Europe as the ‘Dark Continent’ and God is longing that His light return to it. In this vision as people worshipped the King of Kings the light pierced the darkness and new life came. Many breakthroughs will come as we simply worship the Lord all across Europe.

Related Scriptures:

• Ezekiel 37
• Revelation 5

Jeremy Gadd
April 2005