🗣️ Malcolm J. Duncan: Encounter at KT. 🙌

⛪️ Kensington Temple, Kensington Park Road, Notting Hill, London W11 3BY, England, Great Britain. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧

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When Prayer Becomes Power Beyond Politics

On Second Thought

There is a quiet tension that many believers carry when they think about leadership, authority, and prayer. It is not always easy to pray for those who lead us, especially when their decisions, values, or direction do not align with our own convictions. Yet Scripture calls us beyond preference and into responsibility. Paul writes in 1 Timothy 2:1–4, “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority…” This is not a suggestion rooted in agreement—it is a command grounded in God’s sovereignty. Prayer for leaders is not about endorsing them; it is about entrusting them to the One who truly governs all things.

When Jesus spoke in Luke 18:1, “that men always ought to pray, and not to faint,” He used the Greek phrase “mē enkakein” (μὴ ἐγκακεῖν), which means not to lose heart or give in to weariness. That instruction becomes especially meaningful when applied to leadership. It is easy to grow cynical. It is easy to disengage. But Jesus calls us into persistence—not because circumstances are easy, but because God is faithful. Prayer becomes the believer’s steady response in an unstable world. It is an act of faith that refuses to surrender hope to frustration. In many ways, prayer is the believer’s way of participating in governance at a spiritual level, where decisions are shaped not by human systems alone but by divine influence.

As I reflect on this, I begin to see that praying for leaders is deeply connected to knowing God. Hebrews 8:11 reminds us, “And they shall not teach every man his neighbour… saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me.” The promise of knowing God is not limited to private devotion—it extends into how we engage the world around us. The Hebrew word “yadaʿ” (יָדַע), often used to describe knowing God, speaks of relational intimacy. When I truly know God, I begin to trust His authority over human authority. That changes how I pray. Instead of reacting emotionally to leadership, I respond spiritually. I ask God to shape their hearts, to guide their decisions, and to align their convictions with His truth. Jeremiah 9:23–24 reminds us that true understanding is found not in human strength or wisdom, but in knowing the Lord who exercises “lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness.”

There is also a necessary shift in how we view influence. We often think influence belongs to those in visible positions—those who speak, legislate, or lead publicly. But Scripture reveals that influence also belongs to those who intercede. The believer who prays faithfully participates in something far greater than public discourse. Psalm 19:1–2 tells us that even creation declares the glory of God continuously. In the same way, the prayers of God’s people rise continually before Him. Charles Spurgeon once said, “Prayer moves the arm that moves the world.” That statement is not poetic exaggeration—it is theological reality. God has chosen to work through the prayers of His people, making intercession a vital link between heaven and earth.

It is also important to remember that leaders themselves are not autonomous. Proverbs 21:1 declares, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord… he turneth it whithersoever he will.” This reframes everything. Governments may appear powerful, but they are not ultimate. God’s authority transcends every institution, every office, and every system. Isaiah 55:8–9 reminds us that His thoughts and ways are higher than ours. That means even when leadership seems misguided or uncertain, God is not absent. He is actively working, often in ways we cannot yet see. Our role is not to control outcomes but to remain faithful in prayer, trusting that God’s purposes are unfolding according to His wisdom.

And so, prayer becomes both a responsibility and a privilege. It calls us to lift our eyes beyond immediate frustrations and into eternal realities. It invites us to care not only about policies but about souls—to pray for leaders to know Christ, to seek righteousness, and to lead with wisdom rooted in God’s Word. It reminds us that every decision made in halls of power is ultimately subject to the authority of God.

On Second Thought

There is a paradox here that challenges the way we often think about power and influence. We tend to believe that those with the most visible authority shape the course of history, while those without it simply respond to what unfolds. But Scripture quietly overturns that assumption. The one who prays in obscurity may be participating in decisions that are made in the highest places of authority. The person who feels the least influential may, in fact, be engaging the greatest source of influence available.

It is almost unsettling when you consider it. You may feel that your prayers are small, unnoticed, or insignificant. You may even wonder if they matter at all in the face of complex political systems and global challenges. Yet the very act of prayer places you in direct communion with the sovereign God who rules over all nations. The paradox is this: the less control you have outwardly, the more access you have inwardly. The less visible your influence, the more direct your connection to the One who holds all authority.

And perhaps even more surprising is this—praying for leaders does not just change them; it changes you. It reshapes your heart, softens your perspective, and aligns your thoughts with God’s purposes. It moves you from frustration to faith, from reaction to reflection. In praying for those you may not agree with, you begin to see them not merely as leaders, but as souls in need of God’s grace. That shift is not natural—it is spiritual.

So while the world debates power in terms of position, Scripture invites us to see power in terms of access. And access, for the believer, is never limited. You may not stand in the chambers of government, but you stand before the throne of God. And that, on second thought, changes everything.

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When “I’ll Pray for You” Becomes Real

Did you know that saying “I’ll pray for you” without praying quietly weakens your spiritual integrity?

There is a subtle tension that exists in the life of many believers. We genuinely care about others, and when someone shares a burden, our immediate response is often sincere: “I’ll pray for you.” Yet too often, those words drift away, carried off by the distractions of daily life. The issue is rarely a lack of compassion—it is a lack of intentional follow-through. Scripture calls us into something deeper. “Men ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1). The Greek word πάντοτε (pantote), meaning “always,” suggests a continuous posture, not a momentary reaction. Prayer is not meant to be an occasional response; it is meant to be a sustained rhythm.

When we fail to pray after we say we will, something more than forgetfulness is at stake. Our words and our actions begin to separate, and over time, this can dull our sensitivity to both God and others. Yet the invitation is not to feel condemned, but to grow more intentional. Developing simple practices—like writing down prayer requests or pausing to pray immediately—helps align our words with our actions. In doing so, we begin to experience prayer not as an obligation, but as a genuine extension of love. It is in that alignment that we begin to know God more fully, fulfilling the promise of Hebrews 8:11, “They shall all know me.”

Did you know that prayer is not just about informing God, but about participating in His work?

It is easy to assume that since God is omniscient, our prayers are unnecessary. After all, He already knows the need. But Scripture presents prayer as participation, not notification. Paul repeatedly asks for prayer, saying, “Continue in prayer… praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance” (Colossians 4:2–3). If prayer were merely informational, Paul would not depend on it so heavily. Instead, prayer becomes a means by which God invites us into His purposes. We are not changing God’s mind; we are aligning ourselves with His will.

Psalm 20 offers a beautiful model of this kind of prayer. “May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble… May He send you help from the sanctuary” (Psalm 20:1–2). Notice the language—it is both hopeful and confident. The psalmist is not hesitant; he speaks as one who trusts God’s character. This kind of prayer strengthens both the one praying and the one being prayed for. It shifts our focus from human limitation to divine sufficiency. As we pray this way, we begin to experience God not as distant, but as actively involved in the lives of those we love.

Did you know that confident prayer reflects what you truly believe about God?

There is a striking declaration in Psalm 20 that reveals the heart behind effective prayer: “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God” (Psalm 20:7). The contrast is clear—some rely on visible strength, while others rely on the unseen faithfulness of God. Prayer exposes where our trust truly lies. If we pray hesitantly, unsure whether God will act, it often reflects uncertainty in our understanding of Him. But when we pray with confidence, we are declaring that God is both willing and able to intervene.

This confidence is not rooted in our worthiness, but in His nature. Isaiah reminds us, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways” (Isaiah 55:8). While we may not always understand how God will answer, we can trust that He will act according to His wisdom and love. As we grow in this confidence, prayer becomes less about asking timidly and more about standing firmly in faith. It becomes an act of worship, a declaration that God is greater than the circumstances we face.

Did you know that praying for your enemies may be the clearest evidence of a transformed heart?

Perhaps the most challenging aspect of prayer is not remembering to pray, but choosing to pray for those who have hurt us. Yet Jesus makes this expectation unmistakably clear: “Love your enemies… and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). This kind of prayer goes beyond natural inclination. It requires a heart that has been reshaped by grace. When we pray for our enemies, we are not excusing their actions; we are entrusting them to God’s justice and mercy.

This is where prayer becomes deeply personal. It reveals whether we have truly understood the grace we have received. If God has forgiven us, how can we withhold prayer from others? Praying for an enemy softens the heart, breaks the cycle of bitterness, and aligns us with God’s redemptive purposes. It is in these moments that we begin to reflect the character of Christ most clearly. And in doing so, we come to know God not just as a concept, but as a living presence transforming us from within.

As I reflect on these truths, I am reminded that prayer is not meant to be an afterthought—it is meant to be a defining mark of the believer’s life. Perhaps the most practical step we can take today is simple: when we say, “I’ll pray for you,” we pause and do it right then. Or we write it down and return to it with intention. In doing so, we move from casual expressions to committed intercession. And as we do, we discover that prayer is not just something we offer to God—it is a pathway through which we come to know Him more deeply.

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🗣️ Malcolm J. Duncan: Encounter at KT. 🙌

⛪️ Kensington Temple,
Kensington Park Road, Notting Hill, London W11 3BY, England, Great Britain. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧

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🗣️ Scott J. Templeton: Encounter at KT. 🙌

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Kensington Park Road, Notting Hill, London W11 3BY, England, Great Britain. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧

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🗣️ Malcolm J. Duncan: Encounter at KT. 🙌

⛪️ Kensington Temple,
Kensington Park Road, Notting Hill, London W11 3BY, England, Great Britain. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧

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#Church #Kyrka #ChurchService #Gudstjänst #WorshipService #WorshipOnline
#Prayer #Intercession #Förbön #PrayerMeeting #BöneMöte

🗣️ Malcolm J. Duncan: Encounter at KT. 🙌

⛪️ Kensington Temple,
Kensington Park Road, Notting Hill, London W11 3BY, England, Great Britain. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧

🎦 https://YouTube.com/live/kIGYfbFrh7g

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Process and coinherence

Prehension is not perception in the ordinary sense, and it is not causation as traditionally imagined. It is the way an event takes account of the world it inherits. Without it, the past would be dead, the present spontaneous, and continuity impossible. To prehend something is to include it in one’s own becoming. This inclusion need not be conscious, deliberate, or even noticeable. It simply means that what has happened contributes to what is happening.

Every actual occasion prehends its predecessors. It does not choose whether to do so. Prehension is mandatory. What is optional is how it prehends…

The past does not act on the present by pushing, transmitting force, or occupying the same space. Instead, the present appropriates the past. Influence travels forward because it is taken up, not because it is imposed.

This replaces external causation with internal relation.

Robert Flix, [AN] Whitehead in Plain English, p.62

Contemplation is an entering, in profoundly open awareness, into the process of prehension. This isn’t a passive reception, an observation only; it is a deliberate participation in, a strengthening of, the relational web between occasions, between things, events and their relations.

This seems to me why contemplatives have so often, especially those practicing within the traditions of a religion, connected the idea of contemplation with intercession, whether in the developed theology of hesychasm, or in Buddhist conceptions of metta or tonglen. Looked at like this, contemplative prayer in its intercessory dimension is not superstition but metaphysics; the practitioner, through their inevitable coinherence with the suffering inherent in existence, prehends the brokenness of things, holding them in the light of unbroken awareness. In effect, the practitioner enters into the suffering as the suffering enters into them: acting as a lightning-rod between what merely is and the ground of being itself – God, if you will allow the term.

In A Little Book of Unknowing, Jennifer Kavanagh writes:

…Faith is not about certainty, but about trust… 

We have seen that there is little about which we can be certain. Certainty may be undermined by limitations of the current state of knowledge; the subjective nature of experience; the fluid quality of the material world; or the intervention of unforeseen events. But beyond these aspects of the world about which we often assume knowledge, there is a dimension of life to which rational explanation simply doesn’t apply. Most people would admit that there is much that we cannot apprehend through reason or through the senses. We might know a fact with our brains, but not be able to understand what it means, to fully experience its reality – the age of a star or the trillions of connections within the human brain – some things are too big, too complex, for us to conceive. Einstein, who knew a thing or two about factual knowledge, felt that “imagination is more important than knowledge”. There is a dimension which co-exists with the material, rationally grounded world, is not in opposition to it or threatened by scientific development but happily stands alone in the context of everything else.

Reading Alfred North Whitehead’s metaphysics seems at last to be providing me with a framework within which I can begin to understand what has always been a deep instinct in my own practice: that it wasn’t merely a solipsistic exercise in self-improvement, but a real work of weight and consequence beyond my own narrow concerns. In a sense, it doesn’t matter of course whether I can explain it to my own or anyone else’s satisfaction; what matters is that it does work, is actual work, in some obscure corner of the healing of things.

🗣️ Malcolm J. Duncan: Encounter at KT. 🙌

⛪️ Kensington Temple,
Kensington Park Road,
Notting Hill, London W11 3BY,
England, Great Britain. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧

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🗣️ Malcolm J. Duncan: Encounter at KT. 🙌

⛪️ Kensington Temple,
Kensington Park Road, Notting Hill Gate, #London W11 3BY, #England, Great Britain. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧

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