Below we have re-published Clifford Hill's lead article from the first print edition of Prophecy Today, March/April 1985. Entitled 'Take Off the Graveclothes!', it was a clarion call to the church to rise up and be counted, and is still highly relevant today.

These are exciting days to be a Christian!

We are living in one of the most significant periods in the history of mankind. There are many signs that these are the times that former generations have longed to see – the times of which Jesus and the prophets spoke. The need for clear discernment has never been greater in order that we may rightly interpret the signs of the times and rightly convey the Word of God to our generation.

In a world armed to the teeth with the most incredible weapons of destruction there has never been greater danger facing mankind. Yet with the mounting evidence of spiritual awakening around the world these are also days of limitless opportunity for the Gospel.

Spirit of violence vs the Spirit of God

There appear to be two mighty forces at work in the world today and moving towards a climax of confrontation. The contrast between the two is almost too vivid and blinding to comprehend. A spirit of violence has been loosed into the world; and, the Spirit of God is at work among his people.

The destructive forces of violence are to be seen in every part of the world. Assassination, terrorism, urban guerrilla warfare, revolution, plus 37 actual wars at present in progress are ample evidence of this. The threat of the world being plunged into a nuclear holocaust comes not only from the clash of the giant superpowers but from the smaller nations. The day is in sight when nations such as Libya, Syria, Iran, Pakistan - all experiencing an Islamic fundamentalist revival – will each have their own nuclear weapons (the threat from militant Islam may one day prove to be greater than the threat from atheistic Russian communism). The world is rapidly entering a highly dangerous and unstable period.

"The Holy Spirit is being poured out on people of all nations today just as the prophet Joel foretold and at precisely the right time when the forces of darkness are threatening to overwhelm the world."

At the same time the Spirit of God is at work in the world bringing new life and hope. In nation after nation there is a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit bringing spiritual awakening and revival. Today the church worldwide is growing at a faster rate than at any time since the days of the New Testament church. The church in Africa, south of the Sahara, is growing at a rate of more than 7 million per year. The new birth rate has overtaken the natural birth rate; so that the day is in sight when most of the population of central and southern Africa will be committed Christians. Similar things are happening in Korea, in China and in many other parts of Asia, also in South America and in Central America. Even in Russia and Eastern Europe there is evidence of a fresh move of God.

The Holy Spirit is being poured out on people of all nations today just as the prophet Joel foretold and at precisely the right time when the forces of darkness are threatening to overwhelm the world.

Re-arming the Church

God has entered the battlefield against the principalities and powers! Through a fresh move of the Holy Spirit worldwide, God is re-arming his church for battle. The time is drawing near when the battle of the ages will take place, the battle of which Paul hints in Ephesians 3:10, when through the church God will take on the world rulers of darkness that have for so long been driving mankind.

The word God spoke to Jehoshaphat are a time when Israel was under threat of annihilation is relevant to us today:

"Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. The battle is not yours, but God's." (2 Chron 20:15)

Traditionalism dying

The greatest danger facing us today is that of missing the timing of the Lord through failure to understand the signs of the times and failure to understand what God is saying to us today. While many of the new and younger parts of the church are full of life and vigour and eager response to the Spirit of God, many of the older and more traditional parts of the Body of Christ are showing signs of geriatric decay and hardening of the spiritual arteries.

Right across Europe many of the traditional churches are sleeping peacefully, occasionally stirring to murmur, 'As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be' or are so caught up in the immediacy of institutional organisation and of social programmes that their spiritual eyes are blinded and their energies are diverted into unproductive cul-de-sacs.

The traditional churches with their centuries of scholarship ought to be the eyes and the ears of the church but they are failing to discern the dangers confronting our world today and the biblical significance of the days in which we live.

Prophecy neglected

For centuries there has been a neglect of the ministry of prophecy due in part to the very right and wholesome fear of being misled but also due to the Reformation emphasis upon Scripture as being not only the final authority on the word of God but also as being the final utterance of God, although this is contrary to the teaching of Jesus in John 14-16 on the gift of the Holy Spirit to the church.

Jesus taught that through the Holy Spirit God would continue to communicate with the believers. He said:

"I have much more to say to you all, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth…he will tell you what is yet to come." (John 16:12, 13)

In times of crisis God has always raised up prophets to speak to his people. The task of the prophet is to stand in the council of the Lord and to bring the contemporary word of God to the contemporary world (Jer 23:18, 22).

"God wants his whole church to be a 'prophetic people' to communicate his word to his world in these days of crisis."

Just as God spoke to his people of the old covenant through prophets to give them encouragement, warning or clear guidance in times of crisis, so God is speaking to his people of the new covenant through prophets today. The major task of the prophet is the forthtelling of the word of God. The prophet gives vision, clarity of purpose and understanding to the people of God. He enables the Body to discern the word of God for our times that it may rightly proclaim that word to the world. God wants his whole church to be a 'prophetic people' to communicate his word to his world in these days of crisis.

The Church constricted

The major blockage to the proclamation of the word of God to the contemporary world is the degree to which the world has infiltrated the Western church destroying its simple trust and expectancy and replacing it with all the complexities of institutionalism, unscriptural theology, materialism, secularism and unbelief. These are the graveclothes with which we have encompassed the Body of Christ. These are the constrictions that are imprisoning the word of God today. But the fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit we are seeing today is a worldwide movement. God is longing to renew his church in the West that it may fully accomplish his mighty purposes in this critical period of world history.

The Lord Jesus is weeping over his church today as Jesus wept over the tomb of Lazarus his friend. He wept for the slowness of understanding and unbelief of those whom he loved. "Roll back the stone!" he commanded. Then followed the words that demonstrated his claim to be the resurrection and the life. "Lazarus come forth!" Slowly Lazarus shuffled out of the tomb, his body completely encased in the graveclothes that enwrapped him and impeded his movements. There he stood, filled with the new life given to him by the Lord but unable to exercise it because his body was imprisoned within the tightly wrapped graveclothes. He had already received the precious gift of new life but he was virtually paralysed by the graveclothes.

"Dead tradition, unbelief, sterility and institutionalism have put the Body of Christ in a straight-jacket as binding as the graveclothes around the body of Lazarus."

That is a picture of the Western church. The precious gift of new life in the risen Christ is imprisoned within the Body by dead tradition, by blind unbelief, by sterile scholasticism, by the complexities of institutionalisation that have put the Body of Christ in a straight-jacket as binding as the graveclothes around the body of Lazarus.

Take off the graveclothes!

When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead he did not rush forward to help Lazarus or remove the graveclothes from his body. He turned to his friends and said to them, "Take off the graveclothes and let him go!" (John 11:44). The Lord of the church is turning to his people today and saying, "l have already given you the new life in my Spirit, now you must remove the graveclothesl Let my church go into all the world with my word of life."

Let he who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches today.

"Take off the graveclothes! Let my church go!" If we do not hear and heed the word of the Lord today we will miss his timing in this most critical period of world history for 2000 years. Tomorrow may be too late!