“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jer 29:11).

Hope amidst disaster

The message that God had good plans for his people was given when they had reached the pit of despair. Some 10,000 people from the land of Judah had been rounded up and marched 1,000 miles to Babylon. Their mood is vividly portrayed in Psalm 137 – “By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion….” Jeremiah’s letter telling them that God had good plans to give them hope and a future arrived when they were deep in grief at the defeat and humiliation of their nation.

For 30 years Jeremiah had been telling them what would happen and warning of disaster unless there were repentance and change in the nation. Just seven years earlier, in 604 BC he warned the leaders and the people that unless they turned from their evil ways and stopped provoking God to anger, disaster would come upon them. He said that God was saying, “I will summon my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon…against this land and its inhabitants and all the surrounding nations” (Jer 25:9). Seven years later, in 598 BC, the Babylonians came and swarmed across the whole land of Judah. All its cities including Jerusalem fell to them.

True revival out of brokenness

I find myself in a similar position. 30 years ago, I published an article in the printed magazine Prophecy Today of which I was the editor. It was in May 1990 just before the Kansas City Prophets were due to come to Britain in July that year. I wrote:

I am deeply concerned about the widespread expectations of imminent revival that are being built up among Christians in Britain by some church leaders with more spiritual enthusiasm than discernment. There is even an expectation among some that revival will break out in the UK this autumn, with people falling down in the streets slain in the Spirit, and miraculous healings occurring throughout the land that will be featured on TV.

My response is “Amen, Lord. Let it happen!” But the Spirit within me declares this to be false prophecy and to warn against filling the people with false hopes through crying, ‘Peace, Peace,’ when the Lord is saying, ‘There is no peace!’ There will be no revival in Britain without repentance. Indeed, revival will come! But it will not come until the breaking of the nation and the Church. The revival will come out of the brokenness, and not before. The true word of the Lord is to prepare the people for the days of darkness that are coming, that at least the remnant may be able to withstand the testing days and to take a firm stand against deception, or compromise with the truth.”

There will be no revival in Britain without repentance. 

(The full article is reproduced elsewhere in this issue of PT)

Prophetic remnant

When I wrote those words in 1990, I had already been proclaiming the same message for 10 years. In the book ‘Towards The Dawn’, published in 1980, I said that the Church was too full of corruption and unbelief to fulfil the purposes of God and to declare the word of the Lord to the nation – God was calling for the remnant of believers to rise up and be a prophetic people, warning the nation of the danger that was facing us due to the forces of darkness that were gathering in the nation. I said:

“The prophetic task to which God is calling his people in Britain today is not simply the task of a single prophet, or the professional preachers, but of all those who love the Lord Jesus Christ. Moses said, I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” (Num 11:29).

Driving towards destruction

In the book, Towards The Dawn, I outlined the forces of social and economic change that were taking place in the nation, and I said that within a generation they would fundamentally change the culture of the nation with the forces of darkness driving it towards destruction, with anarchy and social unrest sweeping through the nation.

The word I am hearing today is that those prophetic warnings will be fulfilled in the near future, maybe beginning this year. All the signs are there for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear.

There is a disruptive spirit of anarchy running right through the nation today, from Extinction Rebellion to our Parliament and the news media. We are in a situation such as Paul describes with penetrating insight in Ephesians 6, where he sees that the real battle is not against human agencies, but “against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (v.12). In other words, the real conflict is spiritual rather than economic, social, political, or even moral.

It is a spiritual battle, in which our world is being driven by powers of evil that are outside our human control, but which we assist through our sinfulness. 

Spiritual battle leading to spiritual awakening

It is a spiritual battle, in which our world is being driven by powers of evil that are outside our human control, but which we assist through our sinfulness. We cannot resist them with our human strength because they can only be defeated through the spiritual strength that God supplies.

The evil powers of darkness are determined to create political disruption and social disorder. This will be a prelude to the economic problems that are soon to break upon the world, creating shortages of many essential resources and leading to famine, hunger, and social disorder, with people taking to the streets.

The Bible reveals that God’s strategy of salvation is to create new life out of death (resurrection out of crucifixion). He allows us to go to our human disasters, and when we admit that we have no power to solve our own problems, we cry out to God for help. This is what I foresee: there will be a spiritual awakening in the nation when we get to the point of despair – then we will be open to follow God’s way.

Preparing an Issachar people

That will be the time when the nation will be open to the gospel. And it is for that time that God is preparing the faithful remnant of Bible-believing disciples today. They will be his ‘Issachar People’ who understand the times and know what should be done; people whom God is preparing to use in a future great act of salvation.

There will be a spiritual awakening in the nation when we get to the point of despair.

The great danger facing us is that when economic and social disaster encompasses Britain, it will spread rapidly across the world creating the scenario for the fulfilment of the one-world-order that is foreseen in the perceptive article published last Friday in Prophecy Today, written by Colin Wilson. I warmly commend it to you if you have any doubt about the direction in which the world is currently heading. Perhaps Revelation chapters 13 to 18 should be compulsory reading for Christians today.

Third trumpet

Long ago God spoke to our Ministry Team through Jean Darnell, saying that there would be three trumpets that Issachar Ministries would have to blow. The first would be a trumpet of warning: the second would be a trumpet of preparation and she did not know what the third trumpet would be, but that God would reveal it to us at the right time.

I believe the time has come to blow the third trumpet – which is a call to the faithful remnant of Bible-believing Christians to arise and begin to declare truth into the nation – warning of the threat of the forces of destruction that are at work in the nation and also exposing the great deception posed by those who are planning a reset of the world economy and a one-world government and religion.

Now is the time for the faithful remnant to prepare the way of the Lord!