The Breakfast that Brought Down a Government

The National Prayer Breakfast happens every year in many countries across the world.  In Scotland we had ours last month, in Westminster it was last week.  But I don’t think we have ever had a prayer breakfast bring down a Government before.

Over croissants and bacon rolls participants heard a sermon referencing Psalm 23, led by Rev Isaac who is the founder and CEO of Ascension Trust and also a pioneer of Street Pastors. Many politicians were there including all the main players in what is now a leadership race, one of them has said that it was this sermon that moved him to resign and effectively put the final nail in the coffin of Boris Johnson’s Prime Ministership.

Speaking on Sunday morning Sajid David said “I made my decision then, sitting there listening to his sermon, and I just thought, it’s about integrity, it’s about a duty. If you haven’t got confidence in the boss, you owe it to yourself and the country to tell the boss nicely that you can’t serve and that was it.”

Now part of me wonders why it took until now for a Cabinet Minister to realise that serving in this Cabinet was about integrity and duty, but lets welcome the sentiment rather than question the timing.

Many of my friends in Ministry do question the impact that their sermons can have, they ask every Sunday, was anyone actually listening, did anyone actually take in what was said, did the word reach anyone?  What this goes to prove is that you can never tell what impact the Word will have on anyone but it always does have an impact.

Isiah 55 v 11 says “It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it.” (Living Bible version)

One of the founding principles of Logos Scotland and why we are called Logos, is that we want to bring that Word to the public square.  Logos is a Greek word meaning “word, thought, principle, or speech”.  Words are powerful and the Word of God is incredibly powerful.  Words can change things, can bring justice, can bring peace, can bring chaos and can bring integrity and reawaken that sense of duty in our society.  What we have seen in the last week is that it can bring down Governments and rulers, we should never underestimate how God can work through us or the impact of our testimony can have.