Britain has a choice ahead.

I have been looking at things we published in Prophecy Today back in 2016, prior to the Referendum and the vote to leave the European Union. Amongst the many comments and articles about the EU and about Britain, its heritage and present social and spiritual condition, we also published what we believed to be an authentic prophecy given by David Noakes.

Although we left readers to assess whether or not they believed this to be a genuine word from God, we clearly felt that there was the truth in it, or we would not have published it. We therefore believe it is right to revisit it at this crucial time in the nation’s history.

We now face the appalling prospect of a second referendum, which is being continually pushed by the BBC in all their news bulletins and interviews - or another general election, in which there is a strong possibility of Jeremy Corbyn becoming Prime Minister.

Let’s review the situation. Theresa May has rightly won the respect even of her strongest opponents, however grudgingly, for her resilience and persistence in the past two years of hard bargaining with the officials of the European Union, succeeding in agreeing a deal with them which has now been presented to the British Parliament and will be voted upon in the near future.

The deal itself is vastly complex and is set out in 500 pages of legal language that makes it difficult to summarise and assess. It sets out the financial settlement with Brussels for allowing the UK to leave the EU; the establishment of a transition period, giving businesses and individuals time to adjust; and it establishes the rights of EU citizens in the UK and UK citizens in the EU at the end of the Brexit period. 

We now face the appalling prospect of a second referendum, which is being continually pushed by the BBC in all their news bulletins and interviews.

The Irish Question

The most controversial part of the deal is the agreement over the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, to ensure that Britain cannot gain a competitive advantage over the rest of the EU.

Anti-Brexit protesters in Westminster. See Photo Credits.

There is agreement between the two sides to make every endeavour to secure a satisfactory agreement during the transition period. But if no agreement is reached, a temporary backstop would come into effect whereby all EU rules and regulations would apply keeping Northern Ireland effectively within the European Union – a situation that could only be resolved by joint agreement. In other words, Northern Ireland could only be joined up to the rest of the UK with the permission of the EU! This of course is quite intolerable to the DUP and to all Brits who uphold the Union of the United Kingdom!

What a strange quirk of history that the Irish question, which has bugged the English since the time of Oliver Cromwell, should be the main stumbling block to our agreement in getting out of the European Union! It has long been a joke among Westminster politicians that if they ever discovered the answer to the Irish question, the Irish would change the question! They have done just that now. It is no longer a question of whether or not there should be a border, but how the border should operate.

But we cannot blame the Irish for the problems of the European Union, which conflict much more deeply with the foundational values of our democratic civilisation. For centuries these ‘British’ values have been founded upon biblical principles of truth, integrity, faithfulness, righteousness, liberty and freedom of expression. It is because these values were being threatened by the European Union and its unelected cabal of Eurocrats, dedicated to secular humanist philosophies and the principle of ‘ever-closer union’, that many people in Britain voted to leave.

What a strange quirk of history that the Irish question, which has bugged the English since the time of Oliver Cromwell, should be the main stumbling block to our agreement in getting out of the European Union!

Revisiting Prophecy

So, what is God saying to Britain today in the face of the utter chaos in our House of Commons, where every MP has a different point of view and there is no shared vision? We hardly need to remind our readers that where there is no vision, the people perish! (Prov 29:18) or, to use the Living Bible’s translation – “Where there is ignorance of God, the people run wild.”

Our greatest problem in Britain today – and the reason for this absence of vision - is the lack of understanding of even the basics of biblical truth. It is now a whole generation ago that we ceased to teach schoolchildren the basics of the Bible. This is why this present generation is suffering so much from knife crime, guns and gangs in our cities. And this is why there is such a vast amount of mental disorders, depression and suicide among young people – and adults.

A whole generation has been raised without any understanding of basic truth. Now they are even being told that they can choose their own gender – the one fixed point of reference that they have in their childhood! Indeed, we are a nation thoroughly deserving of judgment! We are certainly on the road to ruin unless there is a fundamental change in social policy, currently driving the nation to disaster.

We need to read again the central paragraph of the prophecy given to David Noakes in November 2015 (published in April 2016):

Rather than rely on Me and my faithfulness to you, you chose, for worldly purposes, to join yourself to an institution [the European Union] which has denied my Name and refused to acknowledge Me in its councils. My fierce anger is upon that institution on account of its rebellion, its defiant rejection of me and its hardness of heart towards my ancient people Israel.

I warn you now that the European institution will not repent, even though I bring disaster and destruction upon it. I urge you, O Britain still beloved by Me for the sake of your godly forefathers, come out of her, so that you may not be caught up in that same destruction, for I am even now arising in judgment to bring to nothing what she has sought to achieve. If you will separate yourself from her declared rejection of God, I will have mercy upon you and restore my hand of protection; and I will use you once again to bring light to many lost in the darkness which is now steadily increasing.¹

Our greatest problem in Britain today – and the reason for this absence of vision - is the lack of understanding of even the basics of biblical truth.

Choice Ahead

The choice facing the British nation today is a choice between re-asserting our independence as a sovereign state and (crucially) putting our trust back in God for the future, or being driven onto the rocks of destruction through social chaos and violence. This will inevitably follow if the secular humanists continue to get their way – particularly if they succeed in forcing the nation to hold a second referendum.

It does not really matter whether we leave the EU with Mrs May’s deal or with no deal. If we put our trust in the Lord, blessings and prosperity are guaranteed for the future of the nation. The one thing to be avoided at all costs, is a second referendum. The prayers of all Christians should be directed to this end.

References

1 Read the full prophecy here.

David Noakes begins his chapter, offering a personal and biblical perspective of renewal.

This article is part of a series, republishing the 1995 classic ‘Blessing the Church?’ (Hill et al). Click here for previous instalments.

The history of Israel tells us that again and again the Hebrew nation, despite the Law, despite the warnings of the prophets, walked in ways of their own choosing and not in the ways of God.

They chose the way of the flesh, the way of self-will and disobedience, in preference to the will of their God; they chose to compromise and to make an accommodation with the spirit of the world in which they lived, to worship not only the God of Israel but also the false gods of the surrounding Gentile nations, and to walk in the ways of the world from which God had called them to be separate.

The final outcome we know: disaster and exile, from which the promised return is only now taking place.

The Church, likewise, in every era of her history has faced the same basic problems and the same moral choice. The pressures and the subtle attractions of the world-system which surrounds God's people confront us daily with the need to distinguish the ways of God from the ways of the world, and to make the choice to walk according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh; to walk in the will of God to the exclusion of the clamouring demands of the flesh in the form of self-will and self-indulgence.

The climate of the present age in which we live is, however, perhaps, the hardest to withstand which the Church has yet encountered.

The Spirit of the Age

In the society of the Western nations, the spirit of this age is one which seeks and demands the instant and the spectacular. The world's heroes are those who display outward charisma; their often morally bankrupt character is regarded as irrelevant. Instant success in the forum of materialism or of entertainment guarantees a man wealth and the status of a celebrity.

The pressures and the subtle attractions of the world-system which surrounds God's people confront us daily with the need to distinguish the ways of God from the ways of the world.

The achievements of electronic circuitry and other scientific advances have made commonplace instantaneous results in many fields of daily activity, and have brought intolerance of all that depends on plodding, painstaking labour to achieve its results.

In this disposable society, enduring results are not necessary; all is ephemeral. Tomorrow we will throwaway yesterday's wonder and get the new and better one which will by then be being offered.

Such attitudes, and the spiritual atmosphere which they engender, bring only death to the church which begins to accept and to embrace them. No longer is it seen as acceptable that “through faith and patience [we] inherit” the promise of God (Heb 6:12); we must have it all now. No longer is the discipline of waiting upon God and waiting for God regarded as relevant, but instead we want to be like the world. We crave for instant and spectacular results.

The spirit of the age has deluded us into thinking that the Church ought to be experiencing heaven on earth, here and now, forgetting the plain teaching of Scripture that this cannot be until the return of Jesus (1 Pet 1:3-7). We are encouraged to live in expectation that all problems should be speedily swept away, that financial hardship and ill-health should be eliminated; to believe in a magic-carpet type of Christianity in which we may rub the Aladdin's lamp and summon forth the genie who will do all our bidding for our comfort and prosperity, forgetting the teaching of Scripture that “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22).

As Clifford Hill has stated in previous instalments of this series, it was into an age in which this sort of spirit was coming increasingly to hold sway that the charismatic renewal movement was born in the years leading up to 1960. The fear of the Lord was being replaced by contempt and disregard for the moral law contained in his word, which was coming to be seen as an unnecessary restriction upon a society which had never had it so good.

The spirit of the age has deluded us into thinking that the Church ought to be experiencing heaven on earth, here and now, forgetting the plain teaching of Scripture that this cannot be until the return of Jesus.

The British Charismatic Renewal Movement

The beginning of the charismatic renewal movement in Britain can be dated to the conferences convened by Arthur Willis and David Lillie, the first taking place in 1958.

This new move of the Holy Spirit had the potential to revitalise and revolutionise the Church, bringing about whole-hearted repentance, a return to the ways of God as revealed in his word, and a thoroughgoing and radical revolution in church life bringing back a quality of Christian corporate living scarcely seen since the 1st Century. Or, alternatively, it could fall under the influence of the spirit of the age and the ways of the world in which it found itself.

Sadly, the evidence tells us that the latter tendency has largely prevailed. In few places has the self-sacrificing quality of life of the early Church been re-established, and there has been nothing which could be seen as having the character of revival.

In the Church as a whole, numbers have continued to decline, biblical standards of morality have been abandoned wholesale, and the British nation has turned farther and farther away from God, while the Church has embraced the spirit of the world and has been sapped by it of spiritual vision and vitality.

To watch the unfolding of the history of the charismatic renewal movement has been for me a matter of great personal sadness. Having spent the early years following my conversion under the influence of sound evangelical doctrine, a foundation for which I shall ever be grateful to God, I received the baptism in Holy Spirit in 1967 as a result of a sovereign action of the Lord on a train travelling to Brighton to transact some business!

The charismatic renewal that started in Britain in the 1950s had the potential to revitalise and revolutionise the Church.

Following this unlikely-seeming event, I was introduced to the supernatural manifestations of the Holy Spirit, all of which I believe wholeheartedly are not only valid today, but will become of increasing importance to the Church in the days which are to come: days not of comfort, but of pressure; not of dominion, but of conflict and persecution; not of ease, but of the refiner's fire; days of turmoil and upheaval when God will be shaking all that can be shaken, both among the nations of the world and also in the professing Church. 

Days of Preparation

Believing this to be so, I perceive the times in which we are living as being, for the Church, days of preparation. I have come to understand God's purposes in renewing the activity of the Holy Spirit among us as being to strengthen the Church for the days to come, re-establishing our foundations upon Scripture, teaching us again how to live corporately as the early Church did, renewing the closeness and intimacy of our relationship with himself, and empowering us to be fearless and unshakeable witnesses to the truth of his word.

Possibly the most important single purpose of God in this visitation of his Spirit was to renew our understanding, and hence our outworking, of the corporate life of the Body of Christ. The Church has for generations been crippled in her functioning by our Western-style individualistic way of life, which has been such a feature of Protestant Christianity.

Vital though the Reformation was, it brought with it also this disadvantage: rooted in the Renaissance, with its rediscovery of Greek classical thought, philosophy and literature, the Reformation brought into the Protestant Reformed churches a Hellenistic view of life which is profoundly different at many points from that of the Hebrew.

To the Hebrew minds of those who formed the early Church, corporateness was instinctive; it was a concept built from the very beginning into the structure of the Hebrew nation descended from Jacob. Hence to them, the concept of the Church as a corporate entity presented no great problem of adjustment in their thinking; it was easy for them to understand its structure in the light of concepts such as that of the Body of Christ, or the corporate Temple made of living stones. They were able to understand their oneness in Christ in a way which the Greek-thinking mind does not easily grasp.

I believe we need urgently to let God renew our Western way of thinking in this whole matter, for it is only in the context of the commitment to one another which is established by a corporate understanding of the Church as the Body of the Lord Jesus that we shall be able to stand firm and glorify him when the days of testing are upon us.

God's purpose in renewing the activity of the Holy Spirit among us has been to strengthen the Church for the days to come.

It is significant that the chief purposes of the five-fold ministry appointments of Ephesians 4, and of the manifestations of the Holy Spirit specified in 1 Corinthians 12-14, are to build up the corporate Body of Christ in such a way as to bring strength and unity and to equip us as members of that Body to be able to carry out the purposes of Jesus, the Head.

By the late 1990s, more than 35 years after those earliest beginnings of the charismatic renewal movement, this had really not happened. There were a few notable exceptions, but most of the Church had made little or no progress towards the corporate unity in Christ which brings forth the quality of Body-life of which we read in the early chapters of the book of Acts.

Ishmael or Isaac

In the mid-1970s, during a time of heart-searching and of questioning over the developments of the newly-introduced doctrines of discipling and shepherding, which had operated to destroy a beautiful work which God had been doing among a group of deeply-committed Christians, I sought God for enlightenment and found that I was being drawn in the scriptures to the account in Genesis of the activity of Abraham in bringing forth first Ishmael and then Isaac.

I began to realise that embedded in that story was a great spiritual principle. Both Ishmael and Isaac were born as a result of Abraham's faith in believing God's promise that from his offspring would come blessing to the nations of the earth. The initiative in the whole matter came from God; of that there was no doubt. Abraham's response was one of faith. Yet the end result brought not only fulfilment and joy; but also tragedy and sorrow, heartbreak and strife, and an enmity which continues to cause conflict in the Middle East to this very day between the descendants of Ishmael and those of Isaac.

Why did this mixed result emerge from Abraham's belief in a promise of God which was intended only for blessing and not for evil? The reason lies in Abraham's failure to understand that the Lord who had made the promise had also already chosen the method of its outworking.

When we receive revelation from God of his intentions and purposes, there are two possible ways of responding: the way of the flesh, which seeks to work out God's purpose as quickly as possible in the ways of human wisdom and ability, or the way of the spirit, which hears from God but then waits for him to reveal further his chosen time and means of fulfilling his intentions.

Abraham, then, was faced with the option of these two different types of response to the revelation of God's purpose. God was going to do what he had said, and he was going to do it in his own time and in his own way; but how was Abraham going to co-operate? Would he “by faith and patience inherit the promise”? Would he display the maturity which he later showed when he was willing to sacrifice Isaac on Mount Moriah, believing that God would still fulfil his word even if humanly that had been made impossible? Would he be willing to wait in faith for a further 14 years until God's appointed time for the birth of Isaac, the promised heir?

Abraham did not wait. How much strife and suffering could have been avoided if only he had! Instead, he and Sarah applied their human wisdom and understanding and decided how, since Sarah was barren, they could accomplish the purposes of God and bring his promise to fruition. They decided how best to help God out in the doing of his own work.

When we receive revelation from God of his intentions and purposes, there are two possible ways of responding: the way of the flesh, or the way of the spirit.

In spiritual terms, they were deciding how the flesh could achieve the Spirit's work. But this is by definition impossible: nothing which is of the flesh, of man's self-will, can ever please God or accomplish his will. What Abraham and Sarah were planning was an unholy mixture of the revealed will of God with the activities of the flesh in seeking to bring the revelation into being.

At Sarah's suggestion, Abraham acted on human initiative and sought, successfully, to produce offspring from the body of Hagar, Sarah's maidservant. This offspring was, of course, Ishmael, who was to be the root from which sprang the Arab nations; but he was not the heir whom God had promised.

Hagar was Egyptian. We must not miss the significance of this, for in Scripture Egypt is a type of the world-system out of which the Christian has been saved. Abraham, acting in the flesh, had employed the ways which the world could offer in seeking to carry out God's purpose but it was to no avail. Ishmael was not the fulfilment of God's promise. When the fulfilment, Isaac, was manifested 14 years later, he would come as the result of a miraculous sovereign work of the Spirit of God. God would not use the methods of either fleshly wisdom and endeavour, nor would the ways of the world be involved in any way. It is always so with God.

He would visit Abraham and Sarah in their extreme old age and by the power of his Spirit, having waited until humanly it was beyond possibility, he would bring forth Isaac from their marital union.

A Parallel in Today’s Church

From this account, contained in Genesis 15-18 and 21, I began to understand that God was speaking of a parallel which was and is taking place within the charismatic renewal movement.

Ishmael stands for that which men's wisdom and activity can bring forth in the flesh by way of fulfilling God's purpose. Isaac, however, represents the true fulfilment of the Lord's revealed intentions, a work which his Spirit alone can accomplish, for which men must wait for God to act at his own time and in his own way.

The principle embodied in the account of how first Abraham produced Ishmael and then God brought forth Isaac remains true today. God asks us to cooperate with him in the outworking of his purpose through our exercise of faith, patience and humble obedience, refusing to fall into the trap of supplementing or even replacing God's work by our own human efforts.

The alternative course is that of human endeavour, prompted by a degree of awareness of what it is that God purposes to do, but with insufficient knowledge of his chosen method and too much haste to await his further revelation.

The first way of responding brings blessing and life.

The second has within it from the beginning the seeds of its own demise because that which is born of human striving and wisdom is of no value in accomplishing the purposes of God. To seek to organise God's work for him leads eventually to failure, disillusionment and confusion, and finally even to deception and error.

God asks us to co-operate with him in the outworking of his purposes – not to supplement or even replace his work by our own human efforts.

I believe that since the 1970s, God has been indicating that within the charismatically-renewed churches we have in various different ways been producing Ishmael and not Isaac. God gave in the late 1950s to David Lillie and Arthur Wallis a vision of how the fresh visitation of the Holy Spirit was intended to bring about a return of the Church to a structure and a way of life which we find revealed in the pages of the New Testament, particularly in the books of Acts and Ephesians.

It was of a corporate body of God's people functioning together in such a way that through them, by the powerful working of the Holy Spirit, would be brought glory to God in the Church (Eph 3:21) and a revelation to the world of the true character of the Lord Jesus; a body of people separated as the early Church was, neither relying upon the world nor compromising with its ways. That was the vision which was communicated to the key leaders who attended those early conferences.

Sadly, what we now see is so far from the purity of vision as to be almost unrecognisable, and the reason is that the ways of the world have infiltrated deeply into the charismatic renewal movement. We have been invaded in a variety of ways by the spirit of the age in which we live.

Next week: How the world has infiltrated the Church.

A word from David Noakes.

It is not just Christians who can see that the nation is in trouble. Everyone can see that things have not been going well in Britain recently. The terrorist attacks, the Grenfell Tower inferno, and the hung Parliament all confirm that something is wrong in the nation.

Many Christians know that as a nation we have rejected the word of God in many ways which has resulted in Britain being no longer under God’s cover of protection, prosperity and blessing.

‘Confusion’ is one of the signs of judgment upon a nation, according to Deuteronomy 28:20. But Jeremiah 18:7 reminds us that even when things go badly wrong, if we repent of our wrongdoing and ask for God’s help, things would quickly improve. Through Jeremiah God says:

If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned.

God still speaks to us today so that we can understand what is happening and how he is working out his purposes. This enables us as Christians to speak to others, Christians and non-Christians, reassuring them of God’s love and his desire to bless the nation, restoring peace and prosperity.

The latest word received by my colleague David Noakes (we have worked together since 1984) brings this reassurance. We reproduce it below noting that we do not claim that modern prophecy carries the same authority as the Bible. But God does speak to those who are listening to him, although we express what we are receiving in our own human language and understanding. It is for each of our readers to weigh this prophecy.

Rev Dr Clifford Hill

Prophetic word, first given at East Grinstead (17 June 2017)

David Noakes

Beloved, you are living in momentous days. These are truly the days of a turning point in the affairs of your nation. It is a time of my appointing. I have allowed you to go your own way but I have never let go of you.

There are many voices in your midst which are full of pessimism and I understand that if you look upon your circumstances, pessimism is often the outcome. But I want you to perceive as I perceive.

Beloved, when there is turmoil and upheaval, do not look upon it with dismay; do not look upon it with foreboding; do not look upon it with fear. But look upon it with eyes turned to me with a questioning heart: a heart questioning what your God is doing in the midst of it. For beloved, all these things taking place are under my hand. I have brought about a remarkable work in your nation in recent times. This is not accidental, nor is it sudden, but has come about at my appointed time.

I do not have accidents; I do not have coincidences; I do not have sudden unexpected events. I have appointed events, at appointed times, and I am the one who is seated in the heavens and does whatever He pleases. Do not lose heart, because I am in charge. My hand is on your nation and I have not given up my purposes for you.

I have blessed your nation in the past and truly you have been faithless; but beloved, I have remained faithful. Your enemy has done much to sow lies, to sow false doctrine, to try to bring down all that is good and all that is of God. But I have kept for myself a remnant. My Word remains true for all time and all eternity and I will fulfil my purposes.

This is a time of turmoil and upheaval because your adversary is in great rage and great fear. He is in great consternation that I will use your nation to tear his purposes apart. But that is exactly what I intend to do. I intend to bring his purposes crashing down. There will be turmoil and upheaval; there will be blood in the streets; there will be anxiety amongst those who do not know that God is in charge and do not understand what I am doing.

Beloved, there cannot be victory in war without war taking place; and war is indeed taking place, because I have joined battle. I have joined battle against the forces of darkness which desire to bring your nation to nothing and I have declared I will not have it so. My purposes for you are from all eternity. I have known exactly what I will do at this time. I have known exactly what I will do in the future and I purpose to glorify my name through your nation once again.

Therefore do not be disheartened. Do you think of yourself as being just a little flock? Truly there is only a small remnant who hold fast to My word. But beloved, continue to hold fast to my word and pray that the purposes that I have begun to reveal will come to fruition and fulfilment, and I will visit you afresh with my Spirit.

I will visit you afresh with my Spirit that you may be empowered: Not for your glory, but for Mine. Not to build empires but to build my Church. I desire also to visit you with my Spirit that you may be instruments in my hand to go into the fields which are ripe for harvest, and bring in a harvest; for there is a harvest waiting to be brought in.

There are many in fear and trepidation and utter confusion, and I want you to be a people who know their God and do exploits. I want you to be a people of compassion; not of judgement; not of condemnation. Judgement is mine, I will repay. But I ask you to be a people of love and concern; of compassion for the lost, and of deep desire that the truth should be brought to many who will understand it and be saved. For surely there are those whom you think are your enemies, who are longing for truth.

Do not be down-hearted, therefore. Do not be dispirited. Yes, I know all too well that you are surrounded by those who wish you ill. Beloved, do not heed them but look to your God who wishes you well. Look to your God who wishes them well. I desire a people who are willing to bless their enemies and to do good to those who speak evil about them.

As you do this they will see your light. Many will reject, but many will see the light in the darkness and will desire the only light they can see. For all their plans and schemes will have fallen to the ground and then they will turn to the only truth.

Do not give up therefore. Hold fast. Hold fast to Me. Hold fast to My Word. Hold fast in love and unity, to one another. Be loyal and faithful to each other. Forgive each other all offences and stand together, that as one you may show the character of your Lord and Saviour. Beloved, understand that I have not given up, and I say to you: do not give up either, but look to Me and hope in Me that I will do what I have planned.

About the author: David Noakes was a solicitor in London until he joined Clifford Hill’s ministry in 1984. He has been part of the Prophetic Word Ministries/Prophecy Today team since that time, although he has also exercised an independent ministry speaking at conferences both in Britain and overseas. He has visited Israel many times and until recently was chairman of Hatikvah Film Trust, working with Hugh Kitson making films about Israel. He is a well-known Bible teacher with an established ministry and remains an official advisor to Issachar Ministries (Prophecy Today UK's parent charity).

More prophetic words are brought at a day of prayer in Chichester, confirming the prophecy that was given through David Noakes last week.

In last week's editorial we looked at events that have taken place since the Referendum and the vote to leave the European Union. We published a word from my colleague David Noakes that assured us that God is fully in control and that although we must expect "darkness and upheaval in the European institution" we should not be anxious, because God is working out his purposes and will walk with us in the difficult times that lie ahead.

Chichester Day of Prayer and Prophecy

Last week my wife and I led a day of prayer in Chichester. There were quite a large number, most of whom were mature Christians having a good knowledge of the Bible and Christian teaching. At one point during the day we set aside a time of complete quiet to listen to the Lord for what he is saying to his people in Britain today.

Individuals took a note of what they heard and then shared it with others in groups of about ten, who together weighed what was brought. Following this a spokesperson for each group reported back to the whole gathering the most significant words that had been accepted in their group.

Learning from Past Examples

During the day, we had already done some teaching on how the biblical prophets had received revelation from God: how they listened and how they knew that what they were hearing really was from the Lord. We noted that Isaiah heard from God early in the morning, "He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught" (Isa 50:4). We noted how Jeremiah learnt to "stand in the Council of the Lord" (Jer 23:18).

We noted that Jesus promised that his disciples would recognise his voice in the same way as sheep recognise the voice of their shepherd. He said "I am the good Shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me" (Jn 10:14). Jesus also promised that we would be able to hear the truth through the Holy Spirit. He said "When he the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own, he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come" (Jn 16:12-13).

Hearing God Speak

Only two of all those present had seen David's prophecy, which had only just been published. But the remarkable thing was how many of the words reported in the feedback time were in accordance with it. Of course, we should not be surprised at this because if we are all listening to the same Source on behalf of the nation, we should hear a similar message!

At a prayer day in Chichester last weekend, many prophetic words were given in accordance with that given by David Noakes, despite only two people present having read it.

Warnings of Trouble, Hope for Opportunity

Many of the words were warnings of troubled times that lie ahead. A typical word reported by one group was, "Times of great turmoil are coming because the enemy is angry with the vote to leave the European Union. The praying church will be important in the coming battle nevertheless the exit will be successfully completed", but we were also warned about deception, "Watch out that you are not deceived" (Luke 21:8).

We were warned that getting out of Europe will not be easy. It was not easy for the people of Israel to get out of slavery in Egypt. Although they were given permission to leave, the Egyptians chased after them and God had to do a miracle to save them. "When the King of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about them and said, 'What have we done? We have let the Israelites go and have lost their services!'" (Ex 14:5). The battle to get out of the EU will be long and hard. There is a great need for Christians to intercede and pray for our negotiators, businessmen and politicians, that righteousness will prevail.

There were a number of prophetic words about the 'fields being ripe for harvest', suggesting that God is giving us a great opportunity to share his truth with others and that many will respond to the Gospel – particularly young people, who are searching for truth in a confusing world of strife and conflict.

Warnings About Israel and the Middle East

There were strong warnings about the situation in the Middle East; "See, Damascus will no longer be a city but will become a heap of the ruins" (Isa 17:1). This is coming true today as Syria is being destroyed, but there is great danger that when the destruction of Syria is completed the nations will turn upon Israel "Come, they say, let us destroy them as a nation, that the name of Israel be remembered no more" (Ps 83:4).

There were strong calls for Christians to stand with Israel in prayer as we approach the close of this age. There were further warnings of storm clouds gathering and a time of darkness coming when the faith of Christians will be severely tested. But this was accompanied by promises that we should not be afraid in difficult times because God knows the way he is taking us (Job 23:10) and he will use the difficult times to cleanse his people.

We were warned that getting out of Europe will not be easy - it was not easy for the people of Israel to get out of slavery in Egypt.

With Jesus' Help

God will also strengthen us during the testing times for Jesus has promised that he will never leave us alone. As he prayed for his first disciples, he is still interceding with the Father for his disciples today. In his prayer to the Father, Jesus said, "My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one" (Jn 17:15).

We know that this editorial is different from our usual brand, but the editors felt that it was important to report these words, which we believe to be from the Lord at this special time in the history of our nation. They are particularly important because they have come through ordinary Christians, who are members of prayer groups from many different churches – not ministry leaders or clergy. Clearly God is speaking to his people today!

These prayer groups are scattered around the South Downs area of England – and our team has been leading similar days in different parts of the country. Next month we are in Rochester, Kent, when we may publish a further report. We do hope that this is an encouragement to all praying Christians.

A prophecy to the nation in relation to the forthcoming Referendum on EU membership - for your weighing and testing.

The Prophecy Today UK editorial team has decided to publish a prophecy to the nation in relation to the forthcoming Referendum on EU membership. The prophecy has already been widely circulated and we believe our readers should see it in the context of seeking guidance from God in regard to the Referendum.

We remind readers that all modern prophecy should be tested and not simply accepted as having come from a reliable messenger. Please read the prophecy and then the following note by our Editor-in-Chief, Clifford Hill.

DAVID NOAKES' PROPHECY

This was the word given by David when meeting with a small group of Ministry leaders on 17 November 2015.

"Nation of Britain, I have loved you with a love which has not ceased, despite the state of apostasy and degradation into which you have fallen. My anger towards those church leaders who have taught false things in my Name, and encouraged others to believe and act as they do, is intense and my judgment upon them will be severe. Yet I have compassion upon those who have been like sheep without godly shepherds; and my heart still longs to exercise mercy upon a nation whose forefathers upheld my Name and took my Word to the ends of the earth; a nation whose belief in the truth of my Word framed godly laws and inspired a culture of uprightness.

"Rather than rely on Me and my faithfulness to you, you chose, for worldly purposes, to join yourself to an institution which has denied my Name and refused to acknowledge Me in its councils. My fierce anger is upon that institution on account of its rebellion, its defiant rejection of me and its hardness of heart towards my ancient people Israel.

"I warn you now that the European institution will not repent, even though I bring disaster and destruction upon it. I urge you, O Britain still beloved by Me for the sake of your godly forefathers, come out of her, so that you may not be caught up in that same destruction, for I am even now arising in judgment to bring to nothing what she has sought to achieve. If you will separate yourself from her declared rejection of God, I will have mercy upon you and restore my hand of protection; and I will use you once again to bring light to many lost in the darkness which is now steadily increasing.

"Hear Me, O once godly nation and respond to my call, or you also will come to ruin in that same judgment of destruction. This is not my will for you, but you must choose the course which you will take. I urge you to respond to Me and choose life under my hand of discipline and protection, rather than death in the disaster which is even now coming upon Europe."

David Noakes

About the author: David Noakes was a solicitor in London until he joined Clifford Hill’s ministry in 1984. He has been part of the Prophetic Word Ministries/Prophecy Today team since that time, although he has also exercised an independent ministry speaking at conferences both in Britain and overseas. He has visited Israel many times and until recently was chairman of Hatikvah Film Trust, working with Hugh Kitson making films about Israel. He is a well-known Bible teacher with an established ministry and remains an official advisor to Issachar Ministries (Prophecy Today UK's parent charity).

Additional Note from Dr Clifford Hill

The Apostle Paul warned the church in Thessaloniki not to treat prophecies with contempt but to "Test everything. Hold on to the good, avoid every kind of evil" (1 Thess 5:21). This still applies today. If anyone receives a revelation it should be tested by others, however well-known and reliable the speaker.

I can testify to David's reliability and integrity. We have been close friends and colleagues for more than 30 years. I first heard him prophesy at a gathering of men and women with prophetic ministries at Mt Carmel in April 1986. Since then we have spoken at countless meetings together and many times he has received a word from the Lord that has been helpful to a local fellowship.

This prophecy is different and I have to say that it would have been much easier to weigh and test if David had expressed it in the third person rather than the first person singular. But that should not prevent us from a careful consideration asking fundamental questions, such as:

• Does it conform to Scripture or is there any way in which it does not?
• Does the prophecy edify and build up the church?
• Is the prophecy expressed in love?
• Does the prophecy glorify Christ?
• If the prophecy is predictive or has promises of blessings or warnings of judgment, Are there any conditions to this prophecy?
• Does the prophet himself/herself pass the character test required of one bringing a revelation from God? This character test was one of the major tests of prophecy in the New Testament churches.
• Finally, Is there a witness of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of the believers who hear this prophecy?

An expansion of these tests can be found here. These tests of prophecy were expanded still further in my book Prophecy Past and Present, published by Eagle (Guildford, 1995).¹

We are not going to answer these questions here because it is for readers to weigh the prophecy for themselves. We are simply indicating the way in which mature Christians should consider any word of revelation that is given today and we remind readers that our words are the human expression of what we believe we are hearing from God in our prayer times. These words have to go through our minds and none of us can claim to be sinless - so the words we speak must be weighed and tested, in accordance with the teaching of the Apostle Paul.

Over the next few weeks on Prophecy Today, Clifford Denton will discuss some of the well-known prophecies that have been given in modern times.

Dr Clifford Hill

References

1 pp237-251, in the chapter 'Testing Prophecy'. Copies of PROPHECY PAST AND PRESENT: An Exploration of the Prophetic Ministry in the Bible and the Church Today are still available from the Issachar Ministries office – email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..