These are my notes from my talk last night at Burn. They are based on a talk so might not read too well, and also quite lenghthy! but thought it would be good material for the blog and anyone who was at Burn and wants to go over some of the stuff I said might find it useful, includes links to the various speeches and people I mentioned.
be a bit rambly but I want to bring some
threads together. There have been a lot of prophetic words spoken about our
nation recently and I want to talk a bit about those but also to share some
thoughts I have had and some things I have felt God saying to me.
Basically I believe that the tide is turning for
the church and for our nation. I believe God has given various prophetic signs
and particularly now as the worlds eyes are upon this country it is a significant
time. I believe that a time is coming where we will see more of Gods kingdom
right here on earth, but we have to step into it… We, as followers of Jesus have
a part to play.
read the first and last paras. interesting and I also want to look at Isaiah
49: 8-9
8 This is what
the Lord says:
of my favor I will answer you,
and in the day of salvation I will help you;
I will keep you and will make you
to be a covenant for the people,
to restore the land
and to reassign its desolate inheritances,
9 to say to the captives, ‘Come
out,’
and to those in darkness, ‘Be free!’
feed beside the roads
and find pasture on every barren hill.
Jerusalem, yes – but is it that we build
it through industry, technology, popular culture – no! Alongside it and using
it, yes, but God will build this new Jerusalem and we have to be listening to
know our part within that. This is not a new message but I believe that the
timing right now is crucial… I will come back to those passages later…
There have been a lot of words spoken about the
UK recently and in the run up to the Olympics and the Jubilee year etc. I have
been really interested in some of this and also felt God has been showing me
some things too. When I watched the opening ceremony it was like things started
to come together, so i’ve been thinking about some of those threads and the prophecies
and I’d like to share some of that with you. I’ve not really done this before,
sharing something I believe is prophetic in this way (words etc yes) so I’m
going out on a bit a limb and I would love us to pray through some of this
stuff, so do feedback to me. Be really interested to know peoples thoughts.
spiritually quite big, and I don’t say that lightly. It’s like the tide is
turning, our society has become so dark, so un-Godly and now is the time for it
to turn. A few people, me include have been given pictures of a Tsunami during
prayer. And the interesting thing is that before a tsunami happens the tide
pulls right back, far further than usual, exposing what is underneath. A time a
dryness or exposure before the mass of water comes flooding over.
had our personal big renewal of faith that I felt that the tide would turn in
terms of our social behaviour, society and what is acceptable etc, but I
couldn’t really see how that would happen. Well now I do! I believe it is
because the church will rise up, there will be a re-awakening of the
spirituality of the nation, the desire to see Good, and therefore God, at the
heart of our nation,…
WW2 (and 1 to a certain extent). Many of our parents and certainly grandparents
grew up knowing the awfulness of war, the effects it had on families, on a nation,
on communities. The awfulness of grief and loss, not just for the dead but for
a way of life, or the normality of living ones lives and daily routine. Some of
them will have been evacuated, sent away from their families at such a young
age, not to see them for months on end. I recently read some notes on my
grandmothers life, who was a teacher and was sent all over to teach and look
after evacuees. The hardships that she and her charges put up with were just
awful and in case tragic.
changes and uncertainty that our grandparents or parents brought up their
children, they and we have been shaped by those experiences and memories. That
in turn has shaped society.
war everything was reused, several times over! Food was pickled to last,
everyone grew their own veg, people helped out, they got stuck in – because
they didn’t have a choice. And then the invention of plastic, something that
could be thrown as it was cheap and easy to produce was a revelation.
have survived without, who as the men were away did the jobs they had done,
helped on farms, with manual work, drove buses, you name it they did it. After
the war they wanted some of that freedom to remain (understandably) and with
more options – labour saving devices, etc they could.
austerity. People lived with so many rules and regulations for years and so the
result in the aftermath was the 1960s and revolution! Authority was frowned upon,
people who had stuck with rules and regulations of the war for years rebelled,
the 60s, the sexual revolution, drugs, all history tells us as this was an
aftershock from the war. Kids who had grown up surrounded by it, wanted to do
things their own way – like a whole nation of teenagers rebelling!!
for the good. We have better transport, technology that allows us info at the
click of a button, and our kids don’t have the responsibilities that our own
parents and grandparents did, but at the same time do we have too much freedom?
talks of being taught that they had a responsibility to the nation, it was
drummed into him, that they ahd to give something back. Quite a valuable
lesson, but possibly quite hard to hear. And yet we almost have the opposite
now don’t we, such a self-focussed society.
won… The war was over in 1945 but the battles continue…just in a different and spiritual way. Some people do
talk about war in terms of spiritual attack and I’m not going to go into all of
that, just that I feel there are after effects of a truly awful time in our
nations history that still affect us today more than we often realise.
we see the nation rioting (Last year), continual reports of stabbings and
shootings, often with kids – teenagers, the greed of some in the financial
world, we are taught we can have what we want now and pay later, and as I said,
this sense of self-focus. On top of all that the nation in the biggest
recession we have ever seen.
era.
And yet there is hope. Much of it. And many words
being spoken of a new era, a change coming. And I believe as Christians we have
a big part to play in that. We have to rise up and take our place in that transformation.
We have to be ready and listening to hear what He wants us to do….
profile people including Beni Johnson (Bills wife) from Bethel Church:
of one of her talks at Bethel. She referred to words she had been getting over
the previous 2 years, of bells being rung out across the UK as a prophetic
sign, that seeds of revival that have been sown, will be resurrected. That this
will be a significant and strategic time for the UK in bringing about revival.
She had been given pictures of bells ringing and then she heard about the bells
being run for the jubilee and the barge, and for the Olympics.
rung, all before anything was announced this year about the bells being part of
our celebrations. His talks of a turning point – time to claim back
our Christian identity as a nation, claiming back that which has been robbed
from us. I was really interested to see that he referred
to the recession being the greatest battle this country has faced since WW2, he
also talks a lot about the war and the significance of the bells being run and
the timing. 27th July, (when the bells were rung
for the Olympics io Friday) was exactly 70 years since the bells were rung
across the country as ordered by Winston Churchill, after the battle of El
Alamein in Egypt. He requested this as he relieved it was a turning point in
the war.
in this country bells were brought in my Celtic missionaries who carried the
gospel in one hand and a bell in the other. That the bells were rung so people
would know that the ‘man of God was coming’ and to expect the word of God and
healings.
His prophecy mentions these bells specifically:
1) It has been announced that on June 3rd, as part of the Queen’s Diamond
Jubilee celebrations a massive flotilla of 1000 boats will go down the Thames.
At it’s head will be a remarkable floating bell tower featuring 8 specially
cast bells. As they are rung by the Ancient Society of College Youths, their
peals will be answered by chimes from riverbank churches along the route! The
very first boat after these bells will be the 88ft Gloriana.
2) Then on 27th July at 8am, as described above, on the first day of the
Olympics, there will be the ringing of bells right across the land.
3) It has also been announced that for the opening ceremony of the Olympic
Games a 27 ton bell, twice the size of Big Ben, and the largest in Europe will
form the centrepiece and will ring in the start of London 2012. It will carry a
quote from Shakespear’s The Tempest: ‘Do not be afeard; the isle is full of
noises’. Another theme will be the ‘cleansing and recovery of poisoned land’.
churches in London were ringing peals (3 hours of continuous ringing) in the
first morning of the Olympics and that Big Ben was rung for the first time out
of its usual cycle since the death of King George.
refers to David Cameron speaking at Oxford on KJV of the bible at the end of
last year – referring to Britain as a Christian nation. I went back to look at
his speech – and its interesting that even he refers to a turning point.
practising – Church of England Christian, who will stand up for the values and
principles of my faith…
Second, just as our language and culture is steeped in the Bible, so too is our
politics.
From human rights and equality to our constitutional monarchy and parliamentary
democracy…
…from the role of the church in the first forms of welfare provision, to the
many modern day faith-led social action projects…
…the Bible has been a spur to action for people of faith throughout history,
and it remains so today.
Third, we are a Christian country.
And we should not be afraid to say so.
One of my favourites is the line “For now we see through a glass,
darkly.”
It is a brilliant summation of the profound sense that there is
more to life, that we are imperfect, that we get things wrong, that we should
strive to see beyond our own perspective.
The key word is darkly – profoundly loaded, with many shades of
meaning.
monarchy owes much to a Bible in which Kings were anointed and sanctified with
the authority of God…
I have never really understood the argument some people make about
the church not getting involved in politics.
To me, Christianity, faith, religion, the Church and the Bible are all
inherently involved in politics because so many political questions are moral
questions.
So I don’t think we should be shy or frightened of this.
opportunity to help shape the future of our communities.
But to do so it must keep on the agenda that speaks to the whole country.
The future of our country is at a pivotal moment.
The values we draw from the Bible go to the heart of what it means to belong in
this country…
…and you, as the Church of England, can help ensure that it stays that way.
refers to an absence of a real accountability or moral code, in relation to the
riots and the bankers!
the Queen also mentioned her faith in her Christmas speech in December, so within
a month of each other our 2 highest leaders in this country had spoken of faith
and Christianity, something perhaps unthinkabl in recent years.
Christmas. Jesus was born into a world full of fear. The angels came to
frightened shepherds with hope in their voices: ‘Fear not’, they urged, ‘we
bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
Saviour who is Christ the Lord.’
history teaches us that we sometimes need saving from ourselves – from our
recklessness or our greed.
philosopher nor a general, important though they are, but a Saviour, with the
power to forgive.
It can heal broken families, it can restore friendships and it can reconcile
divided communities. It is in forgiveness that we feel the power of God’s love.
Town Of Bethlehem, there’s a prayer:
all find room in our lives for the message of the angels and for the love of
God through Christ our Lord.
Christian heritage with at least 3 hymns and the ‘abide with me’ scene being
very powerful and poignant – with a dance related to dark and light and what
seemed to be resurrection – heading towards the light. Amazingly powerful.
ancient time
Walk upon England’s mountain green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England’s pleasant pastures seen?
And did the countenance divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among those dark satanic mills?
Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!
I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England’s green and pleasant land.
various ideas surrounding it but the most common being the idea that Jesus
might visit this nation and create heaven here, contrasting the dark satanic
mills of the industrial revolution.
Christopher Rowland Oxford Professor of Theology says this:
“stress the importance of people taking responsibility for change and
building a better society ‘in England’s green and pleasant land “
ceremony and thinking on all of that this was one of my readings for the day: Isaiah
49:8-9. and infact the whole chapter paints a picture of what restoration will
look like and then that God has not forsaken us..
says:
“When the time’s ripe, I answer you.
When victory’s due, I help you.
I form you and use you
to reconnect the people with me,
To put the land in order,
to resettle families on the ruined properties.
I tell prisoners, ‘Come on out. You’re free!’
and those huddled in fear, ‘It’s all right. It’s safe now.’
There’ll be foodstands along all the roads,
picnics on all the hills—
Nobody hungry, nobody thirsty,
shade from the sun, shelter from the wind,
For the Compassionate One guides them,
takes them to the best springs.
I’ll make all my mountains into roads,
turn them into a superhighway.
Look: These coming from far countries,
and those, out of the north,
These streaming in from the west,
and those from all the way down the Nile!”
Heavens, raise the roof! Earth, wake the dead!
Mountains, send up cheers!
God has comforted his people.
He has tenderly nursed his beaten-up, beaten-down people.
So that got me thinking about England as a new Jerusalem and all these threads came together
– is this referring to our nation right now? Do all the signs and words point to a time in our nations history, now, when the tide of apathy, the dark age of our nation, will begin to cease? I believe so.
back our nation. As Joan of Arc said: ‘act
and God will act…’
Kathie Walters, another prophecy relating to the UK (didnt mention this but its interesting)
The Queens Speech full text
David Camerons Speech on the KJV 400th anniversary at Oxofrd, full text
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