Are You Ready? (Part 3)

A spiritual guide for the remnant Bride preparing for the return of the Bridegroom

Prophetic Insights

In May 2022, just as the writing of Crossing Over was completed, a group of intercessors met in rural Cumbria for a weekend of seeking God in prayer and worship for our nation. It was Pentecost, and over the weekend we sensed the Lord spoke several significant things to us. 

Here are just two of them:

1. We saw a picture of a dam that was set to break over the British Isles. It had been gradually seeping whatever it contained over many years but when it collapsed there was a tidal flood of wickedness, evil, depravity and darkness such as the world had not known since the days of Noah and Lot.
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3. Our question was, why now? Who or what had been the reason the dam had been restrained? We strongly sensed that the answer was connected to H.M. Queen Elizabeth II.

Isaiah 23:15-18 records a prophecy against Tyre – a seafaring island and renowned trading nation who had ‘prostituted’ herself with the nations of the world for wealth. Some see a strong resemblance to the British Isles.

“Now it shall come to pass in that day that Tyre will be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king.” (Isaiah 23:15 NKJV).

The meaning of this last sentence is ambiguous because it can mean either the lifespan of one king or the days of his (or her) reign. In verse 15, the Lord speaks of the nation having been forgotten by God for 70 years. But it goes on to speak of His ‘dealing’ with Tyre (Isaiah 23:17).

Dr Clifford Hill, founder of Issachar Ministries, has often said that “There will be no revival without repentance.”

Dare we imagine what this might involve? Certainly, a humbling, hopefully followed by repentance and beginning again on a different, godly foundation. I imagine it involves all of these things, but the judgement must first run its course. We are told elsewhere in scripture that ‘It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.’ (Heb 10:31)

Dr Clifford Hill, founder of Issachar Ministries, has often said that “There will be no revival without repentance.” The scripture outlines the restoration of Tyre to the extent that:

“… her profit and her earnings will be set apart for the Lord; they will not be stored up or hoarded. Her profits will go to those who live before the Lord, for abundant food and fine clothes…” (Isa 23:18).

Transformation of society

This appears to show the fruit of a real godly transformation of society; something only God could initiate and bring about. Verse 15 specifically says ‘according to the days of one king’.

It is my firm belief that with the Queen’s death just three months after our Gathering, some canopy of grace and protection associated with her ended. Our late Queen had a great sense of duty before God to fulfil the vows she made to Him, and a strong personal Christian faith. It may be that on her death, the Lord’s protective hand was lifted off the British Isles, catapulting us into a very different spiritual season, one which many in the church are totally unprepared for.

The good news is that as the nation is gradually humbled and the props holding up our ungodly society crumble, we have the hope from repeated cycles outlined in scripture (e.g. the whole book of Judges), that repentance will sweep through a church that finally wakes up.

It may be that on the Queen's death, the Lord’s protective hand was lifted off the British Isles, catapulting us into a very different spiritual season.

The result will be that we, God’s people, will begin to seek Him with all our heart, soul and strength and turn from our ‘wicked ways’. So, we are likely to see an unprecedented move of God, not only in the British Isles but across the world, in fact everywhere where sea-faring Tyre-like Britain of the past was used to spread the gospel.

‘When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.’ (2 Chron 7:13-14).

So, bearing these things in mind, I believe that a fresh move of God IS on His heart to send.

The longstanding respected prophecies of Smith Wigglesworth in 1947 (here) and Jean Darnell in 1967 (here) – both significant years for the State of Israel – also bring a prophetic expectation of an end-time move of God. If you are not aware of these prophetic words, then do look them up. They are important because we may now be living in the years of their fulfilment.

The Gospel of The Kingdom

Although the term ‘kingdom of God’ is not expressly verbalised until we hear Jesus say it, the concept is implicit throughout the Bible. The kingdom of God is one of the great overarching themes of scripture that begins in the Garden of Eden and ends with the descent of the New Jerusalem. Ever since ‘The Fall’, God has been seeking a people who will allow Him to be their king and walk in a relationship of humble obedience day by day as He once enjoyed with Adam and Eve. The story has been one of repeated cycles of disobedience, followed by judgement that eventually leads to a humbling and turning back to God, with the result that He sends a deliverer – be that a judge, prophet or king – or, indeed, eventually His own Son (Gal 4:4).

The westernised gospel message most of us are familiar with places heavy emphasis on the fact that Jesus was born with the sole purpose of dying to save us, and by this we usually mean Gentiles. Of course, this is true in one sense; Jesus’ destiny on earth was to shed His blood on the Cross for all humanity.

Learning to live the whole of our lives in ways that please Father God should be central to our understanding of the gospel message.

But that is not the whole message of the gospel. Our Greco-Roman thinking tends to be egocentric – how this affects me – whereas Hebraic thought always has the Trinity – the godhead – as the centre around which all of life revolves. Therefore, learning to live the whole of our lives in ways that please Father God should be central to our understanding of the gospel message.

It should not be purely about being ‘saved’ in order to get us into heaven when we die. The breadth of the ‘whole’ gospel message reaches far beyond our personal salvation; it has to, otherwise God’s nature, to love His creation and people forever, would have changed, whereas He is unchanging (Mal 3:6).

Jesus came not only to die but to live an amazing life. The kingdom of God was fully present in Him because He was the only man to ever fully allow Father God to perfectly reign and rule in Him and through Him. He was fully obedient to implement the kingdom’s laws.

The righteous reign and rule of God

At the outset of His public ministry, recorded for us in Luke 4:18-19, Jesus stood in the Temple and read from the prophet Isaiah:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

This was His assignment; to incarnate the message of the gospel of the kingdom – i.e., the righteous reign and rule of God. His was not simply a message of words as ours so often is, but a vital message of life, hope, restoration, freedom, joy, and peace which Jesus proclaimed, demonstrated, explained and illustrated in every possible way. His message turned people’s lives upside down in such a way that they were compelled to follow Him, even at their own personal cost.

This was His assignment; to incarnate the message of the gospel of the kingdom – i.e. the righteous reign and rule of God. 

“Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and illness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralysed; and he healed them” (Matt 4:23-24).

Jesus upset the social norms by healing on the Sabbath (Luke 6:5-19), raising the dead (Luke 7:12-15), radically setting a life-long captive free (Luke 8:27-36), and prophetically revealing Himself to be the Bridegroom at the wedding in Cana by miraculously turning water into the very best of wine (John 2:1-11).

His kingdom at hand

Jesus did not preach the same gospel message that we do. Because He had not yet died, His message did not revolve solely around the Cross; neither is it recorded that He made ‘altar calls’ or got individuals to pray a ‘salvation prayer.’ His message was not about evoking an emotional response that is very real on a Sunday but easily forgotten and ignored for the rest of the week. The heart of Jesus’ message was the present in-breaking reality of the kingdom of God. It was a dynamic power at work to change people’s lives and it did exactly that.

Jesus illustrated the kingdom through many parables. For example:
“The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches” (Matt 13:31-32).

A mustard seed springs up very quickly; it has the potential to grow phenomenally and to do so in very arid or rocky places, which means it is a strong, persistent and very invasive seed which is also a natural disinfectant.

The kingdom is manifest through a people who will subject themselves to God’s kingship.

“The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about thirty kilograms of flour until it worked all through the dough” (Matt 13:33).

Yeast is a picture of how the kingdom grows and operates: it grows gradually but has enormous explosive potential to break out and change the whole of society. It is a catalyst for change.

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it’’ (Matt 13:44-46).

Wherever Jesus is, the kingdom is ‘at hand’, available and present. He brings with Him the reality of His kingdom – healing, miracles, etc. This is of such great value that people will give everything they have to possess it.

The kingdom of God has already been and will again be flung out to the extremities of the earth by a tremendously powerful, unstoppable force (See Matt 11:12). This force is not armaments or holy war but love, humility and servanthood. This love is actually the Father’s heart demonstrated through us, His bride, to a lost, hurting, bewildered and suffering world. It is Father’s heart of love in us that carries a dynamic power to change individual lives and the society in which we live.

The kingdom, then, is manifest through a people who will subject themselves to God’s kingship. If this is true, then what does it mean for us? How are we to live? How are we to respond? How are we to get ready?