Revival

Hope Revisited

Kingdom Heritage Videos

As some of you know, Roger and I have recently made a number of videos about Signs of Hope & Revival. We started this series after being led to “walk in revival” as we visited the Telford and Wrekin area of Shropshire. This is the link to our YouTube channel:

https://youtube.com/channel/UC1OKiQxQ7MYMN9SFwOQDBQw

Those videos now include (in our Revival playlist):

Signs of Hope & Revival – parts 1 and 2 – focusing on some of the spiritual foundations of Revival including the prayers of God’s people spoken over centuries; the church’s positioning for revival and other places where early signs are being seen.

Signs of Hope & Revival – spotlighting two new churches in Telford: All Nations (which has a Community Grocery) and Telford Minster (which is situated in the heart of the shopping centre and is a CofE plant aimed at the younger generations, although not exclusively).

Both of these new churches have had many full immersion baptisms since the beginning of 2022. Some of these were outside in very cold weather!

Further videos include two testimonies of young men who were on the very edge of despair and suicide. Victor and Lee. They are now, through a Community Chaplaincy, baptised followers of Jesus and more are being added to their number with a real regularity. We have these two stories in our good news playlist.

Our latest one in the same “Signs” series is called Talking Revival. We have strung together some interesting comments from people we’ve met to act as a catalyst for discussion and prayer. That’s in the Revival playlist, too.

Our next project is to edit some excellent material we’ve gathered from Yellow Ribbon, the Community Chaplaincy I mentioned above. These things take time!

Encouragement

We produce our videos to encourage God’s people and to stir up prayer and discussion. So please do share the links around, if they encourage you.

We were personally encouraged to visit a local Baptist Church on Easter Sunday, only to discover that the minister was going to show Lee’s Story. It was such a catalyst to that congregation! It gave an opportunity for some prophetic words to be spoken and received. God was in the house!

Hope deferred

God’s Word tells us this:
Hope deferred makes the heart sick but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.
Proverbs 13:12

Jesus is that tree of life. I plunged into a spiritually low place in the last day or so. It just happened. But God used it to bring forth a poem from my low point. It’s the next post on this blog as it’s long!!

Blessing you all with fresh hope as we move from Easter to Pentecost.

Come on, Church!

Family Time

It’s early afternoon and an unseasonably warm and sunny one. We’re on a caravan site near Frome in Somerset. It feels very much like a summer’s day.

We’re here visiting family as my niece and her 4 year old son are visiting my sister. They’ve come from Japan and it’s been nearly 3 years since they were here due to the pandemic closing off travel. We’re enjoying family time.

Telford Minster

While in the caravan, Roger and I are taking the opportunity to edit our latest video. For the past two Sundays we were blessed by the opportunity to visit a very new church, built by the Church of England in Telford, called Telford Minster.

It’s actually the refurbishment of a large upstairs space in a building called Meeting Point in the heart of Telford. The renovations cost the Anglican church around £1.7 million.

Excited expectation

This is a very different Anglican church. As you will see in our soon-to-be-published video, it is a place of excited expectation; planted in the midst of a town with a reputation for being the most unreached place in England.

The space is large. There’s plenty of room for growth! It started with 6 people in 2020 and the expectation is for at least 600. Already it is vibrant and growing. Jesus is in the midst.

Come on, Church!

I truly believe that revival is very near. In fact, I sense that it has already started – mostly outside the church. The Spirit is moving on the broken and the hungry. The Kingdom is very near. Jesus is visiting His Church and being joyfully welcomed by those with eyes to see, ears to hear and hearts to understand. These places will become centres of His Presence and power through His Word and His Spirit.

Poem

A few days ago I was moved to write another short poem. It’s not the greatest verse ever! But it does express my own heart cry in His Spirit to see the church wake up into this season of visitation. I pray that it is inspired by the prophetic gift that God has given to me.

Come on Church!

Don’t you know it’s started? That the new way has begun?
It’s moving in God’s Spirit. It’s coming through God’s Son

Church, this is your time on earth. The Kingdom comes now here
This is God’s time to rise and shine. His purposes are clear

For those of you with eyes to see, and hearts to understand
His signs are all around you. They’re showing on the land.

I counsel you to ask Him - for salve that opens eyes
So you may see His kairos. It isn’t in disguise

Our Lord is clearly coming. As Aslan on the move
He is the King of Glory, His purposes to prove
He’s asking for a following. A people for the hour.

So Church will you arise and shine?
And demonstrate His power.

When we journeyed to the Telford and Wrekin area of our home county, Shropshire, two weeks ago we did not know what would unfold.

As I recounted in my earlier post “Adventure” we were led to “walk in revival”.

The outcome was very much led by God’s Spirit and we are very close to being able to show you the videos that we made.

“Revival” is an emotive word for the church. We associate it with past great moves of God’s Spirit like the Welsh Revival of 1904 or the Great Awakening in the 18th century led by John Wesley.

signs of hope & revival

Our intention in making the videos was to encourage God’s family. We have all waited so long for signs of people turning to God and we need fresh impetus to our prayers.

When hope’s dream seems to drag on and on, the delay can be depressing
But when at last your dream comes true, life’s sweetness will satisfy your soul.
Proverbs 13:12 The Passion Translation

Yesterday I shared a poem called Repentance. Today, as I was sitting down early with the Lord, I asked Him again about the sort of revival that we might expect. Once again the answer seemed to emerge in a poem. But, please understand that I’m not claiming this as a prophetic poem – just something that unfolded to me.



Revival

We see the graves, we hear no sound
Those bodies lying on the ground 
Are they still living, yet asleep?
If so, we have no cause to weep 

But we shall pray with all our might
That darkness will be turned to light
And sleeping ones be woken now
With tongues of flame upon each brow

Awake, awake the time is here  
Revive, o church, Your King draws near
And broken souls cry out for God 
For rescue from earth's weary sod 

Let's tune our hearts and turn our ears
To sounds that we have longed to hear 
The cries of hungry, thirsty ones 
The ones who thought all hope was gone 

This is our joy to be revived 
So others might now come alive 
And ask for God's own eyes to see
The ones who need His family 

Awake, o church, it's not too late
Jesus is waiting at your gate 
He's bringing  broken souls to you
And He will show you what to do

To bring His message of salvation 
To those who weep in condemnation 
To give them life and hope today 
And help them walk His narrow way

The way that leads to joy and peace
So all our barren efforts cease 
And by the power of God's own Spirit 
We'll find His life and His true merit 

So, dearest church, arise and shine
New wineskins filled with God's new wine  
Cry out for souls who die in sin
Jesus is waiting to bring them in.

I’ve been trying to use a good audio resource so that you can hear the poem spoken. I’m slightly struggling with the technology! But today I’m going to use SoundCloud as I can easily add a photo. I like the image of the small waterfall trickling over rocks. It’s Cardingmill Valley. Let’s pray the waterfall increases!

I would love to hear your feedback about how we, the church, might walk in revival today.

Adventure!

It’s been a couple of weeks since I posted on here. And I’m still learning the art of blogging… too many posts and it gets boring for readers…too few and they think you’ve given up and gone away!

We came away with our caravan a week ago. We intended a weekend trip, but it grew as our short filming project became much more substantial than we expected.

Our intention was to encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ in this part of Shropshire. They have faithfully prayed for a move of God for many, many years and hearts have grown weary.

Hope deferred makes the heart sick- but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.
Proverbs 13:12

“Walk in revival“

It started with some friends as part of a Prophetic Company meeting in the Telford and Wrekin area – about an hour away from home. Before we came I had sensed the leading of the Spirit to “walk in revival.” Even if everything still looks the same, we exercise faith by walking as though revival has begun!

That’s where the adventure started.

Roger and I had brought our filming gear. Pretty simple stuff, but we wanted to encourage the saints here by uncovering some signs of hope and revival. As it turned out, the Spirit of God had already gone ahead of us to provide some amazing opportunities!

Day 1

On day one we were unexpectedly at a friend’s home exploring a wilderness area of thick brambles and undergrowth which she is currently hacking through to make a way where there had been no way.

Later we were worshipping and celebrating a birthday at a church in Dawley. The guy whose birthday we gatecrashed (happily as it turned out!) happened to be someone who has made his own short videos on what revival might look like today. He also used to drive for a man called Arthur Burt, who was close to Smith Wigglesworth!

Day 2

On day two we were at a church full of people of all sorts of nationalities that has seen about 90 people come forward to accept Christ since last December!

Day 3

On day 3 we were at charity offices in Telford called Yellow Ribbon, filming the most extraordinary testimonies of 2 young men whose lives have just been transformed by meeting Jesus. One was an ex-prisoner and the other had been on the verge of throwing himself under a train.

The adventure continues..

So here we are – a few more days on – with all sorts of wonderful filmed interviews and other footage in the can, as they say.

We’ve started to edit. We were going to produce one short five minute piece but now have hours of exciting film to cut together.

Thank You, Lord!

In due time all the exciting comments and testimonies will be available on our YouTube channel. For now we just want to thank our God for His leading and making this adventure real. We will “walk in revival” as He directs.

It may not look as dramatic as Wesley’s 18th century awakening or the 1904 Welsh revival, but we have certainly found some signs of hope and revival to encourage and refresh the heart!