Prophecy Today was originally a bi-monthly printed magazine. Within our archives, there is a treasure trove of messages from God to the Church at that time. Over time, we plan to put all of our archived material onto the web for those who wish to look for it. Over the month of August, we are featuring several of the most significant of these messages.
In this article, from January 1999, then editor-in-chief, Clifford Hill notes the unprecedented weather patterns affecting various nations worldwide, and suggests what God is saying to his people through them. It is a message as relevant to the world today as it was two decades ago.
At Mount Carmel, back in 1986, when we heard God saying, “I am shaking the nations”, none of us could have known just what that would mean. Today, as the intensity and tempo of the shaking increases month by month, whole nations are crying out in bewilderment, “what is happening to us?”
Every region of the world is now experiencing the shaking in some form. Lives are being turned upside down and already there is great suffering. Family life in western nations is breaking down at an alarming rate. Powerful politicians are falling from grace or being overthrown. Corruption is being exposed. Men of violence are having their day. Terrorist threats abound and wickedness appears triumphant as moral principles are abandoned. Great commercial corporations are being shaken. Strong men at the height of their careers stand appalled, helpless in the face of overwhelming economic forces sweeping across whole continents.
Trail of Devastation
Most spectacular of all in the shaking of the nations is the untamed fury of nature unleashed across the oceans, building up mighty hurricane-force storms, to batter the coasts and sweep across nations with unstoppable savagery. Hurricane Mitch, the most powerful storm this century, left a trail of devastation across thousands of miles of Central America.
Officials in Honduras estimated more than 25,000 dead or missing and at least two million made homeless. More than 60% of the infrastructure of Honduras was swept away in the storms, while in neighbouring Nicaragua torrents of mud, rocks and debris cascaded down mountain sides, engulfing whole villages and sweeping away towns. More than 3,000 died and 750,000 were left homeless. Scores of boats were lost at sea. People along the coasts were swept away into the ocean and many fishermen were lost at sea.
God undoubtedly uses both the wickedness and the unfaithfulness of mankind to work out his purposes
Hurricane Mitch swept across the Gulf of Mexico and battered Florida. It even crossed the Atlantic, bringing storm-force winds and torrential rain to Britain. Many areas of Britain were twice inundated with flood water in 1998 as swollen rivers overflowed, sweeping away livestock and crops. Hardly any area of the world escaped unscathed. China and Bangladesh suffered the worst floods in living memory. Storms left a trail of destruction across Indonesia, the Philippines, and South-East Asia.
Destructive Patterns
Worldwide weather patterns in 1998 were changing as global warming gave the hottest year since records began. Experts blame man-made greenhouse carbon monoxide and dioxide gas emissions for changing the world’s climate. The destruction of tropical rain forests was said to have been a major contributor to the vast mudslides in Nicaragua. Long-range forecasts show a grim picture with global warming set to increase and cause what meteorologists describe as “a huge increase in human misery”.
If the destructive weather patterns across the world can be traced, at least in part, to human interference, the world’s economic woes are certainly rooted in human greed and avarice. But God undoubtedly uses both the wickedness and the unfaithfulness of mankind to work out his purposes. He knows in advance the destructive forces we will unleash if we follow certain paths, so he warns us of the consequences of our actions. When warnings are ignored disaster follows and God says, “If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river.” That word in Isaiah 48:18 was preceded by God’s promise, “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.”
So what is the Lord saying to his people at the beginning of this last year in the second millennium? What does he require of us? The answer the prophet Micah gave to that question was, “He has showed you, O man what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (6:8). But God is also keen to prepare his people for what lies ahead. As Amos says, “The Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets” (3:7). So what lies ahead in the coming year and in the early years of the next millennium?
A Severe Test
The nations are already under judgment, so we will see the shaking intensify. The world economic systems are going to be severely hit bringing much suffering to many. Banks throughout the world will struggle to survive. This will mean that governments cannot support large sections of the population, which will bring much social unrest with dangerous consequences.
The faith of believers will be severely tested but there will be amazing testimonies to the faithfulness of God as he reaches out to provide for and protect his beloved ones in the coming storm. “Fear not, little flock,” is his promise, “for I am with you always.” But the prophecies of those who have been predicting exciting times of imminent revival will be exposed as false. This kind of revival is not on God’s agenda for Britain, or Europe, or the western nations, steeped in corruption, greed and spiritual rebellion.
Salvation for the Nations
That’s the bad news. But the good news is that the shaking is actually part of God’s plan of salvation for the nations. As the shaking intensifies, the scales will begin falling from the eyes of many people and there will be a new hunger for God and an openness to the gospel. If we are faithful to seize this opportunity for laying again a biblical foundation of the word of God in the nation there will be a harvest for the kingdom. The harvest will grow out of the faithful preaching of the word of God and will therefore be solidly based. It will not be like the exciting ‘froth and bubble’ revival that many shallow believers long to see. But we will have the joy of seeing lives changed as many embrace the truth.
The shaking is actually part of God’s plan of salvation for the nations
Many of these will come into the kingdom bruised and battered from the storms as Jesus foresaw: “Bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame” (Lk 14:21). The first fruits of this harvest can already be seen in Britain’s overcrowded prisons, where men who have lost everything are turning to Christ in such numbers that a special prison has been set aside for newly converted Christians. As the pride and arrogance of man is broken, a new openness to the truth emerges. This is God’s purpose in shaking the nations. So the word of the Lord to the watchmen is, “Morning is coming, but also the night” (Is 21:12).