When prophets predicted a year of harvest, Darren Edwards took them at their word. Healing campaigns, more intense worship and spiritual warfare have followed. Chris Rolfe reports.
“Towards the end of last year some nationally recognised prophets said 2023 would be a year for harvest, so we’ve organised evangelistic events, an Alpha course and some healing campaigns so we can join in with what God may be doing,” says Darren Edwards (pictured above).
The Elim Lincoln pastor was keen to be involved, not least because the prophesy chimed with a call God had given him previously.
“Four years ago, I felt God encouraging me to look at why people aren’t healed as often in Lincoln as they were during healing campaigns we’d been involved in elsewhere,” he says.
“It wasn’t that there were no healings here, just that they weren’t happening as often as in other cities and towns.”
Darren felt God encouraging him to learn more about spiritual warfare. As he researched the topic, he discovered a link between spiritual warfare and prophecy, and decided to train his church in these areas and in praying over the atmosphere in the city.
Darren says he is now noticing a shift in atmosphere, but this hasn’t come without opposition.
“In February, we organised a healing campaign in Lincoln, notably after four years of trying to break this ‘spiritual cap’ that prophets were speaking about over our city.
“All of a sudden the local press jumped on us and a lady complained about a poster picturing Jesus on it and our claims about healing,” he says. “This most recent healing campaign was the first we’d organised since we started this journey of spiritual warfare.
“We continue to pray for a breakthrough in this area.”
Meanwhile, the church is also focusing on holiness and worship.
“The Bible says we shouldn’t just be hearers of the Word, but doers too. We often promote the prophetic when it builds our ministry, but we’re slow to react when it speaks of going in a different direction to our vision.
“Our prophetic people locally felt God wanted us to focus more on holiness and worship, so we’ve added more worship in our week and some of our people have begun fasting.”
ACCESSIBLE
And to make prayer more accessible, the church has also begun live-streaming its weekly prayer times. Darren says God has been moving in several other ministries too.
“One that is doing particularly well is our Night Light Café, which is a drop-in for people who are feeling overwhelmed emotionally and are at risk of a mental health crisis,” he says.
Elim Lincoln partners with several other local churches, the NHS and a church charity which fund, administer and host this service. With a drop-in evening included, the service has been so successful that the NHS is now encouraging similar set-ups across the county.
The church’s youth ministry is also flourishing. Darren says youth leader Liam Edwards has built a committed team of young adults around him, and after restarted the ministry from scratch following the pandemic has seen the group grow to more than 40 young people.
A highlight of this ministry is seeing faith develop.
“They invite young people to a Bible study and discipleship group called Deeper.
“It was in this group that Liam recently preached the gospel and saw 11 young people make a commitment to follow Jesus.”
Returning to his original point, Darren says the growth of each of these ministries fits with the prophecy he hopes to see come
to fruition this year.
“For us 2023 is a year of prayer, praise, holiness and harvest,” he says.
