Shofar blasts from Cape mountains will herald 40 Days of Worship

Alf James spoke to the organisers of a 40 Days of Worship campaign from September 24 to November 23 which is open to South Africans all over the country, but with the centre of reverential devotion being in Cape Town.

The 40 days of glorifying the Lord will be heralded in by the blowing of shofars from Cape Town’s mountains including Table Mountain and the 12 Apostles, which will declare and imitate the heavenly trumpet blast that is anticipated in the Spirit.

The organising team says the 40 Days of Worship is a Holy Assembly of the Church of Christ, gathering to worship in Spirit and in truth, in a focused and intense way.

“It will also be a personal commitment between each worshiper and the Father. People will prioritise and dedicate their time to worship the Lord publicly in malls, on beaches, on the mountains, in schools, in their work places or wherever the spirit leads.

“Each individual will worship the Lord so that all may see His glory manifested through His Church, united in one purpose as an expression of praise and adoration for Him.

“We look forward to the participation of the whole Church of Christ, His Bride, ready to honour their Bridegroom in grace, worship, and celebration.

“Unity of the Body of Christ is essential, therefore our aim is to develop various connections with those who really want to worship and exalt King Jesus, the only One worthy to receive all glory and honour,” says the www.global-worship.com website.

The call to worship
The 40 Days of Worship organising team is headed by Francis Lira, a missionary from Brazil who initiated the call to worship in response to prophetic visions he received in 2012 and 2015, which corroborate other prophetic revelations received over the last century regarding the glory of God igniting flames of faith in Cape Town that will spread throughout the country, the continent and the world.

His first vision took place when Francis and his wife, Mildred, were teaching at the Heidi Baker Harvest School in Pemba, Mozambique.

“In August 2012 the Lord gave me a vision while we were in Mozambique. I saw the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord moving over the map of South Africa and I saw the Angels of the Lord worshiping Him and circling around the Ark,” says Francis (for details see https://youtu.be/cpkk5DQanK8).

He explains that the vision God gave him opened his eyes to see that the Ark of the Covenant represents the presence of God and where the presence of God is, where the glory of God is, extraordinary things happen. Revival comes, repentance comes and hearts are changed. Many manifestations of God come in the country’s politics, economy, in the Church, and in the country in general.

“It’s time for the glory of God to visit South Africa,” says Francis.

He says soon after he had the first vision he met a group of people from South Africa who invited him to visit their cities, to minister in their churches and to share the vision he had received.

“We accepted the invitation as we felt a strong confirmation in our hearts that it was from God. The following month we ministered in South Africa for 10 days, in Cape Town and Vereeniging.

“After this first contact, we began to visit South Africa once a year for a period of one month each year. This period of time invested in South Africa was in obedience to God, to honour what He had shown us regarding His plans for South Africa, plans of revival and the manifestation of His Glory as a result of His Presence in this nation.

“As we came to South Africa to share what we had received from God, we began hearing that our message was yet another confirmation of what God has been speaking over South Africa for at least 108 years through more than 40 prophetic revelations received by people from different nations of the world.

“The declaration is that the Fire of God’s Glory will ignite in Cape Town and spread throughout South Africa, to the continent of Africa and on to all the nations of the world (see more in the following video https://youtu.be/Ab5KDI8dMog).

“The question was, when and how would this happen?

“In November 2015, while on our fifth visit to South Africa, I had a second vision. This time I saw a great movement taking place in Cape Town. I saw groups of people gathering throughout the city and the Lord told me that they would worship Him for 40 days.”

Prophetic fulfilment over SA
Francis believes the 40 Days of Worship is a prophetic fulfilment over South Africa and that God will change the hearts of the authorities who will submit themselves to the purpose of God.

“God will reveal His power of salvation. He will reveal His power with repentance to people’s hearts. I am not only talking about the Churches or the leaders of Churches, because they will also have a great impact on unification, but also the government of this nation, it will reach the political authorities and it will reach all the communities too.

“I believe the abundant provision of God; the healing and the freedom of God will be revealed in a glorious way.”

Francis believes in a great revival inside the Churches in South Africa as well as inside the country’s communities.

“I am convinced that the doors of heaven are open over this nation and it will bring a great manifestation of God’s love and power over this nation. Many nations will come and visit South Africa, but I also believe that from South Africa many will leave to spread the message of power and transformation.”

Intimacy with God is what we need, according to Francis.

“I always said that before the Ark arrives the trumpets are played, which means that we need to be reverent before the Ark of God — the sound means a proclamation of humbleness and a commitment to God.

“It is like each sound of the shofar brings up a commitment to God, brings up humbleness. It proclaims that we need humbleness, that we need obedience, that we need to change our attitudes, we need to be committed to God, because when the Ark arrives, when the presence of God comes, it comes with the manifestation of the glory of God.”

Francis believes that God will pour out His glory and reveal His power over this nation, which will bring about change and transformation to those aspects of the country that are outside His purpose.

“Where God’s presence is the darkness is dispelled. We believe that this is a glorious period for South Africa, a period of changes and transformation.”

The manifestation of the glory of God
According to Francis, the 40 Days of Worship is not only about revival and music, but about the manifestation of the glory of God over men and women who genuinely worship Him in spirit and truth

“Based on this vision that God gave us of the 40 Days of Worship that will take place in Cape Town and other parts of South Africa, we will carry out a great and extraordinary movement, not only of a music programme, but a convocation of true worshippers, the Church of Christ, for the body of Christ to rise up in unity and oneness.

“It is not a denominational unity, not a unity of organisations, but a unity of lives that seek the Lord and seek to worship Him without the pretext of fame, but of men and women, sons and daughters worshipping the only one worthy of being worshipped with all their hearts and in spirit and truth.

“We will be using several places like beaches, schools, and parks. We will be visiting the prisons. We are raising the people to minister about true worship, to minister to the heart of God with gratitude, and the conviction that he alone is worthy to be worshipped.

“This is a great convocation, it is a great call for the whole body of Christ beginning here in Cape Town and expanding to the whole African continent. And we believe that for other nations and for the other continents it will be the same. This flame of the Holy Spirit is to be carried with fire and with grace, with anointing, with authority, and with a manifestation of love.”

Francis says the 40 Days of Worship will also minister to people.

“It is about a genuine heart of worship for the Lord in spirit and in truth that includes daily actions of love, commitment, consecration — a dedication to one another — to serve one another. These are daily actions that lead the Church to growth in another dimension, serving the Lord and worshipping Him in spirit and in truth.

“When we worship we prostrate ourselves, for it isn’t about ourselves it is about the one to whom we give our worship. It is not how much we are being seen, but how much we surrender ourselves and give to our King all the worship and glory that is due to Him alone.

“We are encouraging various kinds of practical worship during the 40 days of worship, like serving our neighbours, loving our neighbours, helping others, teaching how to live a life of excellence, a life that pleases God.

“”The problem is that in general we like people to recognise our work, which leads to self-satisfaction or self-fulfilment, but we can be well recognised by men for what we do and not be approved by God.

“God’s Word tells us that men look at what is apparent, but God sees the heart.”

Worship that pleases God
According to Francis, we do not give worship and pleasure to God by giving what we think is wonderful or excellent, but by what He approves.

“It is not about how beautiful what we present to Him is, but how genuine we are, and how genuine we stand by God’s standard.

“If we observe that when God gave Noah directions for building the ark, as it was also with Moses with the Ark of the Covenant — in both of these cases they were not by the standards of men.

“Moses would not build it with his own ideas or what he thought would please God, and Noah would not build an ark according to the engineering of his time, but they had to follow the pattern and the standard of God, according to His way.

“Worship is a way of life connecting with God’s heart. It is a life of excellence, according to God’s standards. Worship is not about my way of life; worship is about when I cease to live my lifestyle and step-up to live God’s lifestyle.

“God’s lifestyle is called Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

“The Bible says that He is the exact expression of God’s being. If we want to follow the model of true and genuine worship we need to return to God’s standard, and His standard is Jesus Christ.

“It is not genuine worship if it is not worship that places the Lord Jesus Christ first.

“It is not our methods or our ways of worshipping Him that matter, rather it is our total dependence on the Holy Spirit that will teach us how to worship the Father and please His heart,” says Francis.

How to take part
How can you take part in the 40 Days of Worship?

• Organise an event in your own church, school, workplace, circle of friends that allows expressions and acts of worshipping God.
• Share the vision. Like the Facebook page on “40 days of Global Worship” and share it with your friends.
• Equip yourself or your church to discover more about a lifestyle of worship. As time progresses more study materials will be made available on the website.
• Join the team of volunteers who are organising this event. Visit www.global-worship.com/join-the-team/ to sign up.

The 40 Days of Worship organising team are encouraging participants to log their event on the www.global-worship.com calendar to share with others. Everybody is free to worship in any way they feel led. They can log their event on the website events calendar and create Facebook events.

The 40 Days of Worship organising team will coordinate a few worship events, but the majority of the events should be spontaneous and from the heart of the body. People can log onto the website and see what events are published for that day and join the closest worship event. No event should charge any admission fee or promote their ministry, or church.