Discovering a common thread linking revival, Israel and President Trump

South Africans will tomorrow be praying for rain from Heaven.

On the back of a prayer meeting that drew 1.7 million Christians to intercede for their nation last April, a similar event is now being held in Cape Town.

Led by farmer/evangelist Angus Buchan, It’s Time will again petition God – not only for physical rain to end a crippling three-year drought, but for a Holy Spirit outpouring to end a famine of God’s Word in the land.

And God has promised to answer such a plea. Speaking to Israel, his chosen, he says: “I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground…” (Isa 44:3).

First to the Jews

It is well to remember that this pledge was originally addressed to, and still specifically applies to, the nation of Israel. And it’s no secret that the Jewish state has been transformed from a barren wilderness to a fertile garden since its re-birth 70 years ago. And, yes, the promise for Israel can indeed be appropriated for Gentile nations who honour the God of Israel along with his special people, the Jews.

But pleas for rain from Heaven will otherwise go unheeded as such blessing is dependent upon South Africa first blessing his people (Gen 12:3; Num 24:9). Belatedly accepting Israeli offers of help with water technology will not help; it’s the ultimate water supplier South Africans need to call upon in prayer and repentance.

Pleas for rain from Heaven will go unheeded as long as South Africa refuses to bless God’s people.

Outpouring of the Spirit

“I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground…” (Isa 44:3). A refreshing scene at Ein Gedi in the Judean desert, on the shores of the Dead Sea. Picture: Charles Gardner

The above Scripture (Isa 44:3) promising heavenly outpouring on a thirsty land once provided the inspiration to pray for revival in the Hebrides¹ for two elderly ladies, who just happen to be grand-aunts of US President Donald Trump.2 And I believe this has a direct bearing on the way the President has led the way in honouring Israel by recognising Jerusalem as its capital.

Blind 84-year-old Peggy Smith and her 82-year-old sister Christine, who was almost bent double with arthritis, pleaded day and night for God to fulfil his word, and the ripples of the subsequent revival of 1949-52 went all around the world.

Note that the Scripture verse quoted does not stop with the promise of water (both physical and spiritual), but continues: “I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.”

Not surprisingly, President Trump is proud of his Scottish heritage and has visited the Isle of Lewis where his ancestors helped to change the world for Christ.

God truly honours his word, and responds to faith in his promises. But please note the Zionist connection!

Saved by the Blood

As I contemplate tomorrow’s gathering in Cape Town, city of my birth, I picture the majestic mountainous landscape surrounded by the waters of the Atlantic and Indian oceans – all that sea and yet no rain – and imagine the waves piled high to make way for the faithful to walk through in prayer and petition, rather like the Israelites of old passing through the waters of the Red Sea as Moses led them out of slavery towards the Promised Land.

Jews everywhere will be celebrating Passover this coming week, recalling how the angel of death ‘passed over’ their firstborns, but did not spare Egypt’s sons, paving the way for their exodus as Pharaoh had his fill of plagues.

God truly honours his word, and responds to faith in his promises.

The Jews were saved, however, not just by the water that subsequently drowned the Egyptian army, but by the blood of the sacrificial lamb daubed on the lintels and doorposts of their homes.

The Only Way

Has South Africa – and its leadership in particular – not had its fill of plagues – of sin, corruption, poverty, violence, unemployment, disease and drought?

The way out of this trap is the blood of the ultimate Passover Lamb, Jesus the Messiah, sacrificed on a hill outside Jerusalem 2,000 years ago, who said: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no-one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

Fellow South Africans: mark your hearts with the blood of the Lamb, and He will send water on a thirsty land!

References

1 A group of islands off the west coast of Scotland.

2 World Tribune, 18 October 2017, and sapphirethroneministries.com, 20 October 2017.

The resignation of Jacob Zuma in its bigger picture.

The resignation of Jacob Zuma as President of South Africa is the latest event in a great shaking of the nations of that Continent. Many South Africans hope that Cyril Ramaphosa who replaces Zuma will deal with the corruption that has spread through Zuma’s nine years in power and quell the widespread social unrest that has destabilised the country.

South Africa’s woes are repeated in many other parts of Africa. It is only three months since Mugabe was ousted from power in Zimbabwe after many years of corruption and cruel oppression. The man who did most to expose Mugabe’s disastrous policies, Morgan Tsvangirai, sadly died this week after bravely fighting Mugabe’s violent oppression of democracy.

Nigeria has the largest economy in Africa and the greatest amount of natural resources but is riven asunder by political corruption and social unrest. The inept leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari has allowed racial divisions in Nigeria to thrive to a dangerous degree. The threat of civil war has never been far away in Nigeria since the disastrous Biafran war of 1967-1970.

Perhaps the most tragic situation in Africa today is to be seen in South Sudan, the newest country in the world that was created in a severance from the northern, Islamic part of Sudan. Instead of South Sudan being a prosperous Christian country enjoying peace and protection from Islamic terrorism, the Christians have descended into tribal warfare that has devastated the economy, created massive refugee camps and brought deadly famine to millions of people.

But Christians in South Africa are already seeing hope, as Charles Gardner reports:-

Rainbow of Hope

Jacob Zuma’s resignation as South Africa’s President coincided with a literal downpour of heaven’s blessings as the drought-stricken land was drenched by an all-night cloudburst in the Northern Cape.

Zuma’s longstanding refusal to resign threatened the stability of an embattled nation already facing serious economic and social problems.

Cyril Ramaphosa is being sworn in as his replacement as I write, and I am hopeful of a brighter future for the ‘Rainbow nation’ that showed such promise following the success of its first-ever multi-racial elections in 1994. But the legacy of peace, prosperity and reconciliation left by Nelson Mandela was thrown to the winds of tribalism and strife that mirrored much of what has been going on in the rest of Africa.

Zuma’s refusal to resign threatened the stability of an embattled nation already facing serious problems.

The dawn of the New South Africa was preceded by a very worrying time when civil war looked a real possibility – and was widely predicted by the media – as the Zulu-led Inkhata Party threatened not to cooperate with the transition talks.

Thankfully, South Africa’s many Christians flooded sports stadiums to pray for a resolution, and Christian leaders like Michael Cassidy were used by God to broker peace. The nation was pulled back from the brink as a result, relatively little blood was spilt, and a wonderful new era dawned.

The Bandwagon of Political Correctness

Tragically, in recent years, lack of righteous leadership, along with non-cooperation with all parties of goodwill, has left a trail of destruction in its wake – violence has become rampant (especially in rural areas), along with corruption, unemployment and disease. And with the ruling African National Congress party strongly influenced by Marxism, South Africa has inevitably climbed onto the bandwagon of political correctness where anything goes except good, honest living according to God’s standards.

Part of the Government’s PC dogma is a thoroughly nonsensical accusation that Israel is now practising the ‘apartheid’ that so blighted South Africa, and they are using this as an excuse to downgrade diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.

The irony of the earlier threat to peace posed by Inkhata is that Zuma is a Zulu. But I don’t wish to taint the rest of his people – the country’s largest ethnic group – with his alleged corruption. They are a wonderful tribe; I was virtually brought up by a lovely Zulu woman, Agnes Nzimande. Indeed, they were once great warriors, who even defeated the British at the Battle of Isandhlwana in 1879, and their present King, Goodwill Zwelithini, is reputedly a believing Christian who has bravely challenged the Government over their anti-Semitic stance against Israel, urging them against loosening ties.

In the past, South Africa has been pulled back from the brink of civil war by the prayers of faithful Christians.

Wrong relationships have caused all these problems; politicians have allowed themselves to be influenced by the wrong people, leading to division and corruption. But we worship a God who is, above all, a God of relationships.

He himself is not alone, but acts in harmony with the Son and the Holy Spirit, and he calls us into a relationship with him. And when this happens, we also come into a right relationship with others. The greatest commandment, according to Jesus, is to love the Lord with all our heart, soul and mind; and to love our neighbour as ourselves (Matt 22:37-40).

Putting Things Right

But there is now another rainbow of hope on the horizon. Before I had even heard the news of Zuma’s fall, my wife and I were still in bed having a WhatsApp conversation with friends in South Africa, who were touring the Northern Cape encouraging farmers to keep trusting God through these difficult times, especially the long-running drought that has blighted the country for so long. Not surprisingly, there has been much prayer for rain.

Our friends were travelling to a distant farm to hold a Bible Study on the eve of Valentine’s Day. On arrival, they could see a black cloud heading their way, and during the evening there was an almighty downpour. The heavens opened and the farmers were ecstatic. They rushed outside to measure it, and reported that they hadn’t seen that much rain in ten years

But more was to come! Our friends left the farmhouse at 10:45pm, but due to the downpour and their planned route being rendered impassable, they had to make a 100-mile detour over very rough roads to return to base.

It took them all night. Their truck got stuck in deep mud, and it must have been a frightening experience watching a river of floodwater rushing past as they prayed for help, which eventually came - complete with a tow-bar - to extricate them from the mire.

Their ordeal was matched with much joy, of course, because these God-fearing farmers have been faithfully praying for an end to the drought for a long time. The picture above was taken next morning – a rainbow (promise of God’s faithfulness) of hope now hangs over the land, no longer parched but drenched by the goodness of God.

And it stands as a reminder that South Africa and all the other nations on that great Continent’s long-term hope is to put their trust in the only One who can supply the rain, while at the same time putting their relationships right – first with God, and also with one another.

Amongst all the trouble, God is doing something among his people.

In last week’s editorial, ‘Days of Confusion’, we looked at the complex forces of change that have created the strife and uncertainty in the nation today.

During the past week we have seen George Soros, the arch secular humanist, adding to the confusion by trying to undermine the democratic vote of the British people to get out of the European Union. Volatility on the stock market and demands for Brexit clarity from the business world have all added to the clamour in the nation. But, of course, none of our leaders ask the most obvious question – “Is there any word from the Lord?”

I was really encouraged by the comments on last week’s editorial. They confirm my own sense of excitement that despite all the bad news and the trouble in the nation, God is doing something among his people – those who are not just praying, but who are also listening to him.

I’ve been drawn to Psalm 127 with the familiar words “Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labour in vain.” The second part of that verse is of great significance for us today: “Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.” From this we can derive the biblical truth that unless the Lord watches over the nation we will be wide open to every spiritual attack of the enemy.

This is precisely what happens when a nation such as Britain has a heritage of centuries of biblical truth; but in a single generation discards that truth, turns its back upon God to go its own way, and then is surprised when everything goes wrong.

What Can We Do?

What can we do about this? Well, first we can turn to what the Bible says about a nation that is facing disaster. A significant promise was given by God to the Prophet Jeremiah:

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. (Jeremiah 18:7-8)

This promise was not just for the nation of Israel in a covenant relationship with God, but for any nation at any time, which makes it the most significant promise in the Bible for Gentile nations. It is of particular significance for nations such as Britain, the USA, Europe and other Western nations that have a Judeo-Christian heritage.

Unless the Lord watches over the nation we will be wide open to every spiritual attack of the enemy.

The reason for this is that the promise speaks about God having warned the nation.¹ It is only nations that know the God of the Bible that could recognise a warning from God. It is only nations that have known the truth that could justifiably be charged with having deliberately turned their backs upon truth and embraced false values.

Just look at the values that our politicians are promoting as ‘British values’: “equality, tolerance and the rule of law”. These are not British values! They are an invention of secular humanists drawing on atheist philosophers such as Voltaire, Rousseau, Kant and Marx!

Traditionally, British values have been drawn from the Bible. They are: JUSTICE and RIGHTEOUSNESS, TRUTH and INTEGRITY, FAITHFULNESS and LOVE. These used to be the values upon which all our political relationships, our business relationships and our personal relationships were founded! They are fundamental and eternal: not the trivial rubbish peddled by politicians!

One Example: Britain and Israel

Today, I want to take just one example of the way Britain has forsaken godly standards of truth, leading to the situation in which we now find ourselves.

It’s a well-known fact that the British Foreign Office is anti-Semitic and always votes with the Arabs against Israel in the United Nations. They even voted against the USA when President Trump had the courage to declare that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, which every Bible-believing Christian, every Jew and every educated person knows is simply a plain statement of fact: Jerusalem has been Israel’s capital since the time of King David, 3,000 years ago!

Traditionally, British values have been drawn from the Bible – they are not the secular humanist rubbish being peddled today.

Records show how the Foreign Office civil servants fought against Churchill in the 1920s when, as Colonial Secretary, he strove to implement the 1917 Balfour Declaration that the historic land of Israel should be a homeland for the Jews. In 1938 and ‘39 when the Jews were being murdered on the streets in German cities, Britain refused to let Jewish families come as refugees. We took several trainloads of Jewish children but let their parents go to Auschwitz to be murdered in the Nazi gas chambers.

The Exodus, after the British boarded in 1947. Public domain.An even more horrible crime was committed immediately after the Second World War, when the survivors of the death camps from around central Europe fled to Palestine but were prevented from entering by the British army. A leaky old ship called The Exodus carrying 4,500 survivors was rammed by two British cruisers and forced to turn away from Haifa. The most heinous crime was that all these people were deported back to prison camps in Germany! This was at the time when Britain was beginning to reject its biblical heritage and its values of truth and righteousness.

It was just at this time that the British Empire began to unravel. The greatest Empire the world had ever known began to collapse when it started to despise its own heritage, despite the miracles we had seen during the war that saved Britain when we stood alone.

Of course, I’m not saying that the Empire was perfect – we made lots of mistakes, but from my extensive travels around the world I have seen at first hand some of the good things that British rule brought to those countries. Also, today there are countless millions who embrace the Gospel because it was brought to them through the British Empire: that in itself is a godly heritage.

The Way Ahead

The peace and prosperity Britain enjoyed until the present generation was the fruit of a nation that honoured its biblical heritage. God watched over this nation because of its faithfulness.

This is surely significant: the hope for the future lies in the chaos and confusion in the nation forcing a recognition that we have departed from the ways of righteousness and truth.

If this recognition leads to repentance, there is no doubt that God will honour his promise not to destroy the nation, but to restore times of peace and prosperity…“If that nation that I warned repents of its evil…” As I said last year: I cannot just pray unconditionally for God’s blessing on the nation. But the promise of Jeremiah 18:7-8 is something worth praying for!

Notes

1 A possible exception to this is Nineveh. But there were significant settlements of Israelites in the region around Nineveh since the time of Shalmaneser in 722 BC (See 2 Kings 17:6). So the Ninevites might have known the God of Israel from them which would have prepared the way for Jonah’s warning.

The crisis through the eyes of a patient.

Our editorials have long warned that British society is vulnerable to the shaking prophesied by Haggai and re-iterated in Hebrews 12. We have taken the stand that it is no use praying against this shaking because we would be praying against what God has determined to do.

We have already witnessed the collapse of many businesses in this country following the recession of 2007-8, which now looks more like an initial tremor than the major earthquake. The recent downfall of Carillion is a further sign of the continuing vulnerability of industry and our financial sector.

Yet, as was pointed out the week before last, we seem to worship our institutions as golden calves, looking more to establishing financial security than we look to the Living God. It is as if, as milk is drawn from a cow, our institutions might become healthy through the flow of our money (this also goes for our planned withdrawal from Europe). The National Health Service is one such institution.

It so happens that, over recent months, the NHS has had a major influence on my family life; but for the care we have received, my wife would not be alive today. So I would like to keep focusing on this as an example of where our society is and as a prompt for prayer.

Through the Eyes of a Patient

It is one thing to assess the NHS from frequent news reports of its struggles through the high pressure periods of Christmas and the New Year. It can be quite another to consider the inner workings of the system through the eyes of a patient.

It is one thing to assess the NHS from news reports of its struggles – it is quite another to consider its inner workings through the eyes of a patient.

Over the last few years our family has experienced almost every aspect of the NHS because of the developing chronic illness that befell my wife. We have needed, at various times, the support of our local GPs, pharmacists, health visitors, provision of aids for home support, outpatient hospital visits, and emergency ambulance service and hospital care during the intensely busy holiday period. I was even visiting my wife in hospital during the time when the Health and Social Care Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, was visiting the same hospital (though not our ward!). Presently, we have need of social services and social care.

As a result of all this, personally I have arrived not to a point of judgment, but to the point reached by Jeremiah, the ‘weeping prophet’ (e.g. Jer 9:1). Jeremiah was a forerunner of Jesus the Messiah, who himself wept over Jerusalem and at the tomb of Lazarus.

Why? Because if you get into the heart of the NHS as a patient, you still find dedicated doctors, nurses and medical specialists, just as through all the years since its beginnings after World War II. If God is shaking the nation and if the NHS will be shaken as part of this, therefore, it must not be seen as a punishment to a totally ungodly system.

Appreciating Complexity

Indeed, if there is an element of judgment, perhaps we should all consider the part we have played in allowing things to get to this point. The NHS is vulnerable and some of us have taken it so much for granted that we put needless pressure on it.

As I waited for my wife to be taken from the ambulance to A&E on one recent visit, I had the opportunity of spending several hours ‘people watching’ in the waiting-room. Some clearly need not have been there, with transient troubles that could have been dealt with at home. Of course this is only part of the picture, but a pressurised system could be eased a little if we cherished it a little more and thought of one another more than ourselves sometimes.

Personally, I have arrived not to a point of judgment, but to the point reached by Jeremiah, the ‘weeping prophet’ (e.g. Jer 9:1).

Having said this, to me, the major problem for the NHS lies on its administrative side, from local management right up to parliamentary structures of oversight and planning. Adding to the pressure is the centralisation of hospital care and the closure of smaller regional healthcare centres, so that what was once personal and caring seems to be becoming more and more impersonal. Similarly, the separation of what is called ‘social care’ from the NHS seems wrong to me - finance-driven more than care-driven in its design.

These are enormous issues to consider but I touch on them to suggest that any shaking of our society in the coming days, which will likely impact the NHS as much as other national institutions and businesses, cannot be understood in a broad-brush way.

Getting to the Heart

How, then, are we to discover a path of prayer into the future? We need to find God’s heart, and obtain his perspective, which perhaps are hidden from us if we only observe our nation in worldly terms. The NHS is just one example; if we delved into any of our institutions we would find our hearts torn by their continuing potential and momentum for good, but with God written out of the balance sheets.

Intercession for Britain involves gaining a heart perspective; feeling the hurts more than judging the failures.

It is perhaps no coincidence that the film The Darkest Hour, portraying Winston Churchill’s struggles to lead Britain through the last world war, is currently being shown in cinemas. For anyone who was alive at that time and after, when people pulled together to rebuild and re-establish first a near-defeated and then a near-bankrupt nation, this must be a stirring film.

Yet the story behind the scenes is even more stirring. We must remember those who engaged in intercessory prayer for our nation through the war years and afterwards, who were given God’s own insights into the reality of the battle, physically and spiritually. Such prayer warriors, if alive today, would undoubtedly testify to their call to identify the true heart of a nation in crisis.

To know how to pray, we need to seek God’s heart, and obtain his perspective.

A Journey of Prayer

How then should we pray through our current crisis? God will show us if we are willing. My own path of learning has been through the illness of my wife, which has led me into the heart of Britain’s caring systems to experience both the pains of illness and the pains of the system – and also to witness rays of hope.

Are we willing to let the Lord show us his heart of compassion, as well as his displeasure, for the people of this nation? If so, he will lead us into experiences – perhaps quite unexpectedly - that draw us each into new depths of prayer. God is looking for those who will be willing to respond to this call.

Holocaust Memorial Day should drive us to our knees.

As we mark another Holocaust Memorial Day, held each year on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz,¹ the ongoing nightmare experienced by the Jewish people – with anti-Semitism once again spreading like cancer – should drive us to our knees.

And I’m glad to say that our African brethren, at least, who have brought much-needed new life and vigour to the British Church, are doing just that by calling a special day of prayer focused on our fractured relationship with Israel.²

Wale Babatunde of the World Harvest Christian Centre in south London is particularly concerned by Britain’s failure to follow President Trump’s lead in recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

This follows a series of betrayals over the years which have undone much of the goodwill fostered by the government’s pledge, through the Balfour Declaration 100 years ago, to do all in its power to re-settle the Jewish people in their ancient land.

Fortunately, African Christians know how to pray, so we are fully expecting God to shake up our complacency over Israel – both in Parliament and in the Church.

The Power of Words

My own MP, Dame Rosie Winterton (Labour, Doncaster Central), has already chaired a debate on Holocaust Memorial Day in the House. In a report to her constituents, she said this year’s theme, The Power of Words, was a reminder that the Holocaust did not start with the gas chambers, but with hate-filled words. She added that words can also be a force for good through which we can demonstrate that we will not stay silent when such vilification and de-humanisation occur.

She’s right – and not staying silent includes speaking words in prayer. Many of us have forgotten, or perhaps never knew, that it was prevailing prayer – not Spitfires and Hurricanes – that won the Battle of Britain. Rees Howells and his Bible College students in Wales were on their knees daily throughout the war.

It was prevailing prayer – not Spitfires and Hurricanes – that won the Battle of Britain.

In fact, according to Norman Grubb, in Rees Howells – Intercessor (Lutterworth Press), “the whole college was in prayer every evening from 7pm to midnight, with only a brief interval for supper. They never missed a day. This was in addition to an hour’s prayer meeting every morning, and very often at midday. There were many special periods when every day was given up wholly to prayer and fasting.” Howells told his students: “Don’t allow those young men at the Front to do more than you do here.”

Jerusalem – focus of conflict. But God calls us to pray for the peace of the city (Psalm 122:6).Over the Dunkirk period, Howells spent four days alone with God “to battle through and, as others have testified, the crushing burden of those days broke his body. He literally laid down his life.”

Enemies All Around

It’s time we did it again. Both Britain and Israel face an enemy just as terrifying as the Nazis, only subtler. This is the belief that we are no longer answerable to a heavenly authority, and that man is his own god – a secular-humanist view that has brought the beginnings of totalitarianism (that brooks no dissent) to a society once proud of its freedom. It was for this that my father’s generation risked their lives in World War II.

But as journalist Melanie Phillips has said on a tour of America, Israel is absolutely central to the recovery of Western values, which are based on the Hebrew Bible. “We’re in this together,” she told the Minnesota-based Olive Tree Ministries radio programme.

Here is the stark reality of what is facing the Jewish people today: Iran is fast developing nuclear weapons with which to “wipe out” Israel (in the words of the Ayatollahs and Iranian presidents) and, ominously in the eyes of many, the Russian Bear has now established a foothold in the region.³ The current spat between Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia further adds to the tension and Gaza-based Hamas is repeatedly firing rockets into the Jewish state, while Lebanon-based Hezbollah continues to pose a serious threat on its northern border.

Secular humanism has brought the beginnings of totalitarianism to a society once proud of its freedom.

Brutal Islamic State are also stalking the area, while the Palestinian Authority incites its people to murder and mayhem, and some Westerners are engaged in a boycott of Israeli goods on the pretext that they are oppressive occupiers of land not their own. But the truth is that, in most cases, Jews are being attacked simply because they are Jews, not for political or economic reasons.

Tragically, the South African government is fanning the flames of anti-Semitism with their ruling party, the African National Congress, having last month announced its intention to loosen diplomatic ties with Israel, citing alleged apartheid policies against the Palestinians along with America’s acknowledgement of Jerusalem as the nation’s capital.

Thankfully, the Zulu King is urging them to reconsider. Goodwill Zwelithini, monarch of South Africa’s largest ethnic group, praised the Jewish state for their help in curbing the devastation of drought through their cutting-edge water technology, along with the spread of HIV/AIDS through Jewish-sponsored medical circumcision.

Mountains Can Move!

But in both Britain and South Africa, we have a God in Heaven waiting to hear our cry for mercy. Jesus said we could move mountains with our faith (Matt 17:20, 21:21; Mark 11:23).

Let’s pray for the mountain of paralysing unbelief and complacency to be removed from our nations, in Jesus’ name!

Notes

1 27 January.

2 Taking place on Saturday 17 February, 10am-12:30pm, at the World Harvest Christian Centre, Enmore Road (entrance on Cobden Road), South Norwood, London SE25 5NQ.

3 And we in the West are in very real danger of unprovoked attack from Russia, according to Army Chief Sir Nick Carter. Daily Mail, 23 January 2018.

Three books from the well-known Rector of St Aldate's Church, Oxford.

Charlie Cleverly is the Rector of St Aldate’s Church in Oxford and has authored several books. Here we feature three that are highly recommended by some of our reviewers.

The Passion That Shapes Nations (Victor, 2005)

Although written some years ago now, this book is timeless in terms of its subject matter and relevance. The author contends that in times when the Christian faith is under fire, what is needed is “a resurrection of the spirit of the witnesses/martyrs” (p17). His book is a contribution towards the ‘unforgetting’ of those who have gone before, whose stories of courage and conviction can easily be overlooked and yet have so often founded a stronger Christian witness in the nations where God has placed them.

By operating within the principle of sacrificial love and often paying the ultimate price of a martyr’s death, their passion for Christ has indeed helped shape nations.

In a sense, this book follows in the tradition of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs and at times Cleverly quotes from it, but this is no repetition of material found elsewhere or just a catalogue of those who have died for their faith. The author dwells on their lives, not just their deaths, knowing that this will inspire us far more to serve God faithfully in our own circumstances.

This is a contribution towards the ‘unforgetting’ of those who have gone before, whose stories of courage and conviction can easily be overlooked.

Inevitably, selecting which martyrs to include from “so great a cloud of witnesses” is a difficult task. It is no surprise to find chapters on Polycarp, Wycliffe and Tyndale, Latimer and Ridley, Bonhoeffer and Schneider. But there are others, less well known, whose stories also deserve to be told.

The author focusses on James Hannington and the Uganda Martyrs, the Chinese Church (one of the longest chapters) and those suffering under Islamic persecution, which is described as the “third most prolific cause of martyrdom of Christians in history” (p144).

Each chapter tells its own story; it might be that the best approach to the book is not to read it all at once but to consider a chapter a day over a period of time. That way the individual stories can stand out in their own right rather than being lost in a larger wave of information. Each one calls out to us today - their voices still speak across history. We would do well to listen.

The Passion that Shapes Nations (176pp, paperback) is available on Amazon.

The Discipline of Intimacy (Kingsway Publications, 2002)

This is a book on prayer and its principles, written for those who know that prayer is meant to be easy and yet who find it difficult, and for those who need inspiration and encouragement to pursue the deeper levels of intimacy which make prayer more of a joy than a duty.

The book is written “with the conviction that every Christian is called to pray” (p16) but that we do need to be taught (or, rather, disciplined) in order to become more effective in prayer.

The book is in two parts, the first being based upon the letter to the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2. In this section the author outlines several steps to intimacy as part of the process of developing a more disciplined prayer life. There is also a chapter on the Lord’s Prayer, entitled ‘The Master Plan of Prayer’ - a much better title than simply calling it a ‘model’ prayer!

The second part of the book is much longer and starts by asking ‘what is intercession?’ Each chapter in this section is prefaced by a ‘story of…’ based upon a biblical character such as Abraham, Hannah, Joel, Isaiah. This keeps the Bible continually before us as a guide to prayer.

This book is written for those who know that prayer is meant to be easy but find it difficult, and for those who need inspiration and encouragement in their prayer lives.

The longest chapter is reserved for praying for the nations, and within this is a very well-balanced and informative section on praying for Israel. The aim of praying for a nation is to see its divine destiny fulfilled. The author usefully includes an appendix containing some well-known prophecies for certain nations to help us understand that God does have plans for nations.

Other chapters in Part II include praying for the Church, and the seven prayer burdens of Christ. The latter is based upon John 17 and encourages us to enter into a ‘school of prayer’, with Christ as our Master. There are also reflections on the prayers of Jesus from the Cross - perhaps his shortest prayers to the Father but certainly some of the most deeply felt. He could only pray these prayers at that time because he had learnt the discipline of intimacy during his life. As he lived, so he died, in intimate prayer with his Heavenly Father.

The final chapter tackles the issue of prayer in times of barrenness, when God is silent. The book ends with a useful study guide with questions and reflections on each chapter.

This is not just another book on prayer but one that will last a lifetime, for those willing to engage in an unending journey of discipline and discovery.

The Discipline of Intimacy (238pp, paperback) is available on Amazon.

The Song of Songs (Hodder, 2015)

Charlie Cleverly has also written a detailed commentary on the Song of Songs, subtitled Exploring the Divine Romance. Drawing on a wide range of literary and theological sources, he presents a clear rounded understanding that combines the two different aspects of the Song: a sexually-charged love story and a metaphor of the relationship between God and his people.

A very helpful book for those who have previously neglected this portion of Scripture or who have tried to come to terms with it but found it rather puzzling or off-putting.

The Song of Songs (336pp, paperback) is available from the publisher for £9.99. Also on Amazon.

Who is God holding accountable in Britain – and why?

We at Prophecy Today are encouraging our readers to pray in a focussed way as we face an inevitable shaking of the nation. Looking around the world at one catastrophe after another, it is rather like the situation in Amos’s time.

At the beginning of the Book of Amos the prophet considered one nation surrounding Israel after another whom God was calling to repentance. Then he turned to Judah and Israel last of all: “Thus says the Lord: for three transgressions of Israel and for four I will not turn away its punishment…” (Amos 2:6). Proud Israel may have felt immune from God’s displeasure and quite ready to watch him judge other nations, but Israel of all nations should have known the ways of God. The time did come when it was no use praying for God to turn back his judgment.

So it will be for Britain, which once built herself upon the foundation of Scripture and chose to declare herself a Christian nation, faithful to God. We believe that God has said it is no use praying against the woe that will soon come to our nation, as part of the redemptive purposes of God.

Looking around the world at one catastrophe after another, it is rather like the situation in Amos’s time.

But who is being judged? Who has displeased God to bring this shaking upon us? My purpose in this article is to urge our readers to fine-tune their perspective, distinguishing the good from the bad in the nation, so that we might target our prayers effectively.

‘Church’ and ‘Nation’

For too long, many of us have over-generalised. We may want to pray for ‘the nation’. We may believe that ‘the Church’ must repent. There is some value in using these generalisations, but now perhaps the time has come for a sharper focus.

There is a diverse population in our nation and there are many branches of the Christian Church. There will always be areas for ‘Church’ and ‘nation’ to each address in collective repentance but if we are to understand God’s coming judgment fully, we should not bunch everything together as if all Christians (i.e. ‘the Church’) are apostate and all members of ‘the nation’ are being judged equally.

Achieving a Sharper Focus

As far as the Christian Church is concerned, surely God is pleased with many individual praying and serving Christians and many fellowships who seek holiness, true worship and outreach, desiring ‘holiness to the Lord’ constantly. They may still need to continue to listen to God and keep maturing, but they are willing.

God knows those who are seeking to walk close to him, so the general call for repentance in the Church must be brought into sharper focus, in consideration of those branches and denominations that are wilfully departing from God’s ways and deafening themselves to the prophetic voice.

We should not bunch everything together as if all Christians are apostate and all members of ‘the nation’ are being judged equally.

The same goes for the nation as a whole. There is still a residue of our historical biblical heritage within Britain’s culture and many people, though as yet unbelievers, have consciences and mindsets cultivated by our biblical heritage. Their good deeds will not save them but there are many people loving their neighbours, bringing up their families well, and genuinely seeking answers to life’s fundamental questions, whom God is not seeking to punish for their sins but to win to salvation.

God’s Care for the ‘Good Figs’

There are no simple divisions in either Church or nation, but it is my suggestion that we cease to lump everyone into broad categories. This is reminiscent of the good figs and the bad figs of Jeremiah 24. When the Babylonian captivity came, God kept a special eye on those whom he considered to be ‘good figs’.

These ‘good figs’ still felt the effects of the captivity and all of them needed to consider their ways and their relationship with God, but God did not raise up the Babylonians to be the agents of judgment on Judah because of their wrongdoing.

More recently, take for example the catastrophe of Grenfell Tower. The way the local churches mobilised to care for the needy and the way the local community rose up to provide food and shelter was wonderful to see. Yet, it was negligence from those responsible for care and protection that had left the building vulnerable to be consumed by fire in the first place. It was those who did not properly secure the building who were responsible, not those who lived in the building.

Many such areas of poor leadership are evident behind the scenes in our national life, leading to God’s protection being removed for a season in our land, so that what has been sown will be reaped. But there are remnants of good in both Church and wider society that are not the prime cause of this judgment from on high.

When the Babylonian captivity came, God kept a special eye on those whom he considered to be ‘good figs’.

Shepherds Held Responsible

In the days of Israel and Judah, God’s main accusations were always against the shepherds (e.g. Jer 10:21), rather than the flock - for it is the leaders who determine the direction of a nation. Surely this is the same in Britain.

Every leader of our nation who serves in Government, constitutionally, is intended to serve in the light of biblical truth. This is on account of the Queen’s Coronation Oath. Where they have strayed as leaders (shepherds) they have led vulnerable subjects of the Queen (sheep) into wrong pasture. This applies especially to law changes that are against the ways of God, but also to changes in our national priorities, which have been increasingly for financial security over faithfulness to God.

The same goes for the shepherds of the churches, whether leaders of denominations or of individual fellowships. It is the responsibility of these shepherds to follow the Chief Shepherd and lead believers into good pastures.

Time to Seek God’s Heart

If there is woe on the horizon for Britain we need to fine-tune more clearly whom we believe God holds accountable and for what reason. It is time for us to seek the heart of God, which surely is full of sadness, and to avoid over-generalising, so that our prayers may come into clearer and more meaningful focus.

Meanwhile, there should be no sense of guilt descending on those who are willing to rise up, pray and serve when the nation as a whole is shaken, providing we carefully consider the precise reasons for Britain’s decline before God and come before him in confession and renewed willingness to serve the needy as the time draws near.

How to pray for a nation that has turned its back on God.

Today, 8 September, is being observed as a day of prayer by many Christians throughout Britain. Exactly 77 years ago, on 8 September 1940 (a Sunday), King George VI called the nation to a day of prayer.

It was intended to be a day of thanksgiving for what had become known as the ‘Miracle of Dunkirk’, when some 330,000 troops were evacuated safely with the help of an armada of little boats to get them off the beaches in France and back to England. But 8 September, as if by some prophetic foreknowledge, came at the height of the Battle of Britain, with thousands of enemy bombers darkening the skies of England.

The prayer day was perfectly timed and the Spitfires and Hurricanes of the RAF took a tremendous toll of the German air force. Then, for no rational reason, Hitler suddenly ordered the Luftwaffe to cease attacking RAF airfields. By 17 September 1940 the German Supreme Command issued an order saying that the invasion of England was postponed “until further notice”. The Battle of Britain was won and Winston Churchill addressed the nation with his iconic speech, declaring, “Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few.”

Exactly 77 years ago today, the King called the nation to a day of prayer.

How to Pray?

I am on record as saying that I can no longer pray for the health and wellbeing of the United Kingdom. That does not mean that I do not pray for the nation - but I am careful how I pray. I need to pray in line with what I’m hearing from the Lord.

I cannot pray “peace, peace”, if the Lord is saying “There is no peace”! And I cannot pray for revival and blessing if I know the Lord is saying there will be no revival until there is repentance – at least repentance in the Church, if not repentance in the nation.

If there were repentance in the Church, there would undoubtedly be an outpouring of the Spirit of God. This could be the spark that ignites evangelism to the nation as a whole, with the potential of widespread revival. But that is unlikely, because there is so little understanding among Christians of the nature of the battle we are facing.

Political and Religious Red Lines

In Jeremiah’s day both the politicians and the religious leaders were in rebellion against God. They each crossed a red line and that was why Jeremiah was told to stop praying for the wellbeing of the nation and concentrate instead upon praying for those things that would lead to the fulfilment of God’s good purposes.

Jeremiah was appalled by the actions of the king and his political advisers when the envoys of all the nations surrounding Israel met in Jerusalem to hatch a plot to revolt against the Babylonian Empire (Jer 27). Zedekiah had sworn an oath in the Name of the God of Israel to be loyal to Nebuchadnezzar when he was appointed king, so Jeremiah saw this plot as dishonouring to God. He knew that it would lead to disaster for Jerusalem and the whole nation - it was a political red line.

Jeremiah knew that both politicians and religious leaders had crossed red lines – which was why he was told to stop praying for the nation’s wellbeing.

The religious red line was in the rejection by the priests of what’s known as Jeremiah’s ‘Temple Sermon’ (Jer 7), where he outlined the sins of Jerusalem and followed this with a vivid description of the way whole families were involved in idolatry on the streets of the city: “The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough and make cakes of bread for the Queen of Heaven.”¹

All this was going on under the noses of the priests and Temple authorities, who were so convinced that God would never allow the Gentiles to destroy the Temple or the Holy City that they did not care what the people were doing. They were deaf and blind to the dangers facing them.

Britain’s Red Lines

In Britain, there have been successive warnings to both Church and State as we have drifted farther away from biblical truth as a nation and embraced secular values that are directly against the word of God.

As far back as 1985 we began our warnings in Prophecy Today, commenting on the lightning strike on York Minster the previous year, which had occurred only hours after the consecration of David Jenkins as Bishop of Durham. Jenkins had famously described the resurrection of Jesus as a “conjuring trick with bones”. His lack of belief in the Bible shocked the nation, but he was appointed by Archbishop Runcie, who also had little respect for the Bible and was more interested in forming a one-world religion. He led the Anglican Church for 10 years while the forces of secular humanism were gathering momentum in the nation and there was a great need for a strong Christian presence.

In Britain, there have been successive warnings to both Church and State as we have drifted farther away from biblical truth as a nation.

We believe that the political red line was crossed in the UK when David Cameron came back from an EU leaders’ meeting in 2010 determined to be a good European and obey their directive that all member states should accept same-sex marriage by the year 2013. Cameron managed to meet that deadline by driving the Act through Parliament, against the wishes of more than a hundred of his own MPs.

Judgment immediately fell upon Maria Miller, the Minister who had steered the Act through Parliament, who lost her job within weeks. Cameron was spared long enough to call the Referendum enabling Britain to get out of the godless EU, but Brexit immediately ended his political career.

The Church of England Synod in July this year breached a religious red line when it rejected an amendment committing the Church to be more active in evangelism and sharing the Gospel with people of other faiths in Britain, while at the same time agreeing to devise a service to celebrate the new gender of transgender people. This committed the state Church to supporting the objectives of the LGBTQ movement, which is determined to destroy the family and human identity as men and women created by God.

God’s Good Purposes

I believe the Lord has now removed his cover of protection over the land which has already resulted in an increase in acts of terrorism and disasters such as the Grenfell Tower fire. So how do we pray for a nation that has deliberately put itself against God?

I believe the Lord has now removed his cover of protection over the land.

Again, Jeremiah gives us the answer. He says, “The Lord showed me two baskets of figs placed in front of the temple of the Lord” (Jer 24:1). One was full of good figs and the other full of rotting fruit. Through this picture God revealed his long-term purposes for the good of the nation.

We need to discern the purposes of God for Britain – for the Church and for the nation as a whole. I am convinced that in the long-term God does have good purposes for the nation that will bring blessings and prosperity, but we will have to go through a difficult time which will truly test the dwindling faith of the nation.

This is where the faithful Christian minority has a vital role to play, to do what Ezekiel calls ‘standing in the gap’ (Ezek 22:30): to seek the Lord together, to intercede for those who do not know how, to discern how the Lord would help us recover what is being lost to our spiritual enemy and to pray positively into these issues.

This is where the wisdom of the Holy Spirit is vital and where mature, Bible-believing Christians can play an historic part in reviving the Church and bringing the nation back under God’s protection.

Notes

1 The ‘Queen of Heaven’ was a title for Ishtar, an Assyrian and Babylonian goddess (also known as Ashtoreth/Astarte).

A personal statement from the Editor-in-Chief.

So many people have contacted me since last week’s Editorial that I feel I must make a statement to clarify what I was saying. It wasn’t really anything very new, because in Issachar Ministries we have been teaching along these lines for some time.

We have always tried to teach the necessity of understanding what God is doing so that we can pray in line with his will. It’s no good praying “Peace! Peace!” if the Lord is saying “There is no peace”. And it’s no good praying shalom upon the nation if the Lord is saying, “I am shaking the nation”!

We have to say, “Lord, help us to understand why you are shaking the nation so that we can pray for your shaking to be effective, so that you may work out your purposes in the nation.” This is the right way to intercede, even though it may be uncomfortable for us.

Living in Babylon

Issachar Ministries has long been teaching that for many decades Britain has been defying God by passing ungodly laws – and that as a nation we crossed a red line when our Parliament passed the Same-Sex Marriage Act in 2013. This was a direct act of defiance of the God of Creation – the God of the Bible and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Our Parliament immediately put the nation outside the protecting cover of God. Judgment began immediately upon those most responsible for this heinous Act. Maria Miller, the Minister responsible for the Act lost her job within weeks. David Cameron was spared only long enough to offer the Referendum on the EU to the nation. Then judgment fell upon him that ended his political career.

We have always tried to teach the necessity of understanding what God is doing so that we can pray in line with his will.

Since 2013 mature Christians have been praying for mercy in the midst of judgment. The Referendum was a specific target for believing prayer which, as an act of mercy, God answered positively, giving us the opportunity to sever connection with the demonic institution that the EU has become. But Brexit can only succeed if there is sufficient Godly repentance in the nation to allow God to act in mercy.

Since 2013 the faithful remnant of the Lord’s people in Britain have been ‘in Babylon’ – much as the faithful remnant of Israel were sent to Babylon in 598 BC and when Jeremiah heard of their misery (as per Psalm 137) he sent them his famous letter (Jeremiah 29) telling them to settle down as God had got good plans for them.

The faithful remnant in Britain today are in a similar position: not physically separated, but culturally and spiritually separated from the nation. We are living by a different set of values – kingdom values, not the politically correct, secular values of the nation.

Defiance in the Church

The new thing for me was last month when the Archbishop of York refused to accept an amendment that would have committed the CofE to biblically-based evangelism.

Specifically, an amendment was suggested by Andrea Williams recognising the importance of Scripture in informing and directing how the Church engages with the nation, which the Archbishop of York (with nodding agreement from the Archbishop of Canterbury) urged the rest of the Synod to resist, saying “If you’re going to serve the whole community please don’t limit our language…The Word became flesh and sadly we are now making it Word, Word and Word again. Resist the amendments.” He was clearly committing the Church to conform to the political correctness of secular society.

Since 2013 the faithful remnant of the Lord’s people in Britain have been ‘in Babylon’ – culturally and spiritually separated from the nation.

The same Synod agreed to compose a service to recognise and celebrate the new identity of transsexuals, which is surely an offence against the God of Creation. Putting these two things together I sensed that the CofE had now passed a red line in much the same way as the nation did in 2013. It was at that point that I felt the Lord saying to me the time had come to share with other believers what we have already been teaching about the nation in small groups of intercessors around the country who were seeking to pray in line with the will of God.

I first checked this with our trustees at our retreat last month and they encouraged me to share it with the prayer partners who would be with us the following day. I did this and there was a very positive response – people were even saying that they felt a sense of relief as they had been hearing something similar for some time.

Once I had done this I knew that word would go round rapidly, so then planned to say something in Prophecy Today UK, which I did last week. I believe that our state Church has stepped over a red line. There is a faithful, believing remnant in every church, but in many cases they are as much ‘in Babylon’ in their church as they are in the nation.

Babylon in the Churches

This is the new thing: the faithful remnant is having to learn to live victoriously in Babylon in the institutional churches as well as in the secular nation! Of course, God’s judgment will never come upon the faithful believing Church that is the Body of Christ – but we may well see judgment come upon the unfaithful institutions that are called churches! The Church of England may only be held together so long as our present Queen is head of state. After that – who knows what will happen?

The faithful remnant is having to learn to live victoriously in Babylon in the institutional churches – as well as in the secular nation!

I can no longer pray God’s shalom upon the institutional churches any more than I can pray peace and prosperity upon our secular humanist state – I can only ask for mercy and pray for the faithful remnant to be preserved as the shaking intensifies.

However, that does not mean I intend to stop praying – for there is much I can pray for – and much we can all pray for! Each of us has the freedom in this to seek guidance from the Holy Spirit about how to pray in line with the will of God.

Personally, I pray that truth will be preserved and that the day will come when eyes that are blinded by secular humanism will be opened; and ears that are deafened by fake news and Darwinian lies will be unstopped; and that God will preserve his faithful remnant until the day that a harvest for the Kingdom may be reaped, in a time of his choosing. I probably won’t see the harvest in my lifetime but I have great hope that there will be a harvest for the Kingdom in the lifetime of my grandchildren!

A word from Dr Clifford Hill.

For several weeks, in my prayer times, I have been hearing something I did not want to hear. The weekend before last, at a team retreat with Issachar Ministries trustees and the Editorial Board of Prophecy Today, I shared with them the message that I’m hearing – “stop praying for the nation”.

This sounds outrageous, but before you pick up stones to throw at me, please join me in a little Bible study. The Prophet Jeremiah spent 40 years of his life bringing God-inspired warnings to the people of Jerusalem and the nation of Judah. He pleaded with them to repent of their idolatry, injustice, oppression, violence and immorality; all of which are detailed in his famous ‘Temple Sermon’ in chapter 7.

He constantly pleaded with God on behalf of the nation for mercy and for God’s continuing protection, even though he knew the people to be unworthy of the Lord’s blessings.

But there came a point where God told Jeremiah to stop praying for the nation as he would no longer listen to his pleas. His Temple Sermon concluded with a striking passage:

Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, “We are safe”…?

Jeremiah then almost exploded,

Safe to do all these detestable things? Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the Lord.

This was followed by the Lord’s declaration, “I will thrust you from my presence, just as I did all your brothers, the people of Ephraim.” This was followed by a direct command to Jeremiah, “So do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them; do not plead with me, for I will not listen to you” (Jer 7:16).

Jeremiah constantly pleaded with God for mercy on behalf of the nation, but there came a point where God told him to stop praying.

Repeated Warnings Ignored

Three times Jeremiah was given the same instruction, to cease praying for the nation. The other two times are in 11:14 and 14:11. The latter enables us to understand just what God was saying. It says, “Then the Lord said to me, ‘Do not pray for the well-being of this people. Although they fast, I will not listen to their cry; though they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them.’”

You notice that God did not say that he would not listen if they repented, but that he was no longer interested in their ritual religious offerings while they continued all their idolatrous practices and showed no trust in him. This is very similar to what Isaiah had said some 200 years earlier:

The multitude of your sacrifices – what are they to me? Says the Lord. I have had more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals…When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you. (Isa 1:11, 15)

God had been calling for repentance for 40 years and his words, through Jeremiah, had been ignored. The corruption in the nation had now reached the point where the people were being driven by evil forces that made them blind to the danger facing them and deaf to the warnings they were given.

After giving his Temple Sermon, God said to Jeremiah, “When you tell them all this they will not listen to you; when you call to them they will not answer. Therefore, say to them, this is the nation that has not obeyed the Lord its God or responded to correction. Truth has perished; it has vanished from their lips” (Jer 7:27).

Disaster Inevitable

I believe this is the situation we have reached in Britain – not only in the nation where our politicians are squabbling among themselves in confusion and the BBC forces homosexual propaganda on us on a daily basis, but also in the Church of England, our official state church, which has departed from the truth. As Charles Gardner pointed out two weeks ago, the Archbishop of York declared to the General Synod that the Bible should be ignored and measures passed to please lesbians and homosexuals.

The Synod also voted to call on the Government to ban the practice of ‘conversion therapy’ for gay people and is considering whether transgender people could be given special church services to celebrate their new gender identity. 25 years ago David Noakes sent a prophetic warning to Dr George Carey, who was then Archbishop of Canterbury. The warning is even more relevant and urgent today.

Surely the Lord is saying of the Church of England: “Truth has perished from their lips!”

I believe this is the situation we have reached in Britain - not only in the nation but also in the Church of England.

Justine Greening, the lesbian Secretary of State for Education who is determined to brainwash all our children with LGBT values from the age of five, put further pressure upon the Church last month saying, that if churches do not perform same-sex marriages they are “not part of a modern country”.¹ Our politicians and our church leaders are colluding to distort the truth and deceive the nation: “truth has perished from their lips!”

By contrast this week, the Archbishop of Uganda has stated that he will not attend the next meeting of Anglican leaders because he cannot have fellowship with those who deny biblical truth. Good for him!

God holds his Church primarily responsible for the spiritual and moral state of the nation. When the church becomes as corrupt as the nation, judgment becomes inevitable.

This is the reason why I can no longer pray for the welfare of this nation. I cannot pray, “Peace! Peace!” When the Lord is saying: “There is no peace!” I believe some kind of catastrophe is now inevitable in order to open eyes that are blind and ears that are deaf, and the Lord will use it to bring the nation to our knees. I also believe that this is the only way that God’s salvation is going to reach this nation.

A Coming Harvest!

In the 40 years before the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in the year 586 BC, God raised up three prophets in Judah – Jeremiah, Zephaniah and Habakkuk. All three brought strong warnings to the people; but all three saw beyond the catastrophe to the time of restoration, blessing and prosperity that would follow.

I am convinced that there will be a great spiritual awakening and harvest for the Kingdom in Great Britain with multitudes being saved - but it will not happen until there is repentance and turning. Just as many people whose lives are broken by sin, hear the Gospel and respond with joy as their sins are forgiven and they come into a right relationship with God, the same can happen with the nation.

I believe that some kind of catastrophe is now inevitable in order to open eyes that are blind and ears that are deaf.

For many years God has been warning that the time will come when he will shake all nations. The prophecy of Haggai 2:6-7, repeated in Hebrews 12, is coming true today: “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations’”. Note also that the prophecy concludes with a promise of restoration, “I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord Almighty”.

I am looking forward to the great spiritual awakening that will follow the great shaking! I can no longer plead with God to spare this nation from the judgment we so richly deserve. My prayer now is, “Make the shaking effective, Lord! And work out your good purposes!”

References

1 Interview with Sky News, 23 July 2017.