Five years ago this morning I awoke from a most unusual visit to central London. And that weekend’s events were to prove decisive in my starting this blog.

Two days earlier on Thursday 1st September 2011 the Revival Alliance, an apostolic team of leaders who’d been closely involved with the Toronto Outpouring and later events, met hundreds of other revivalist leaders for a long-weekend in Emmanuel Church in Marsham Street, Westminster.

So now, five years later, I’m surprised to be reminded of it – but things of the Lord are no longer so unusual.  We could say He’s running a paper-chase and leaving a trail for us to follow and catch Him! However, more often than not so little effort is needed because He doesn’t scatter His data indiscriminately but drops them like pieces of a puzzle into our hands. We should, therefore, ‘grasp’ what they are and fit them into a vast, unseen jigsaw puzzle.

The latest piece depicts Paul Revere’s historic ride before the opening battles in the American Revolution to alert citizens that troops of British king George III are about to attack (more here). Readers of my recent post on the spiritual link between UK and USA will have read at its close how a reminder of the event had unexpectedly cropped up.  Had I completed that post when I drafted it last week then I doubt this would have happened. That is, I could well have missed an insight into what happened back in 2011 and its relevance to what the Lord’s now doing in the UK.

Ruminating over and repeatedly blogging about the prophetic word Lydia Marrow brought two months ago yesterday, and its very personal connection with what Nina had seen at 11th June’s traditional royal ceremony, may have stirred my memory – but it’s far more likely the Lord engineered the timing to point to it as being special.

To return to the gathering five years ago, a few days later when writing to Christen Forster, who’d had a prophetic word relating to Ezra 4 about building the house of the Lord and thus desired to convene a meeting of the Revival Alliance in the UK, I learnt about other sources of inspiration at its inception meeting in November 2010. This extract from that meeting’s Report refers to Paul Revere’s ride:

Tim’s remark about that spreading of vision and creation of a network may be regarded not only as meaning RA-related events alone but, in my humble opinion, could also imply that digital networks be developed and expanded to inform and update Christians on prophetic and intercessory matters.

In this connection and for readers who may not have had opportunity to follow the links in that previous post, let me now relate what happened five years ago today, on Saturday 3rd September 2011. I had a most unusual dream as reported to Christen and to the leaders of Winchester Vineyard Church during their de-briefing meeting and emailed them, as later published in one of my earliest blogs (20 December 2011, as linked below):

‘YOUR KINGDOM COME

‘I’m in an open-plan, modern office environment overlooking a town centre. Upon glancing out of one side’s extensive windows I’m amazed to see a large white cube flying very low over nearby buildings! (It’s about the size of a Hercules transport plane.) Watching, I see a few more similar cubes follow and fan out in different directions.

‘Then I look from a different quarter’s aspect to see where they’re coming from and notice this view is from a much higher floor and over a different location! Then, a couple of cubes hover and discharge some cargo, which floats down to settle on the ground – rather as furniture vans deposit items outside a house.

‘However, I’m seeing into a room being set up, as though the building itself is invisible! A large wooden table and its several chairs are already there as white porcelain bathroom furnishings descend, but remain hanging in space!

‘In a flash I understand what’s happening and, without thinking, hear myself comment aloud, “They’re setting up The Kingdom!”

‘Someone else watching disparagingly quips, “Oh, that’s your perspective”.

‘Again I’m surprised by my immediate, unconscious retort, “I studied perception at Uni!” (ie. in physics and in psychology, and am thus making a well-informed comment.)

‘A sudden urgency comes upon me to dash home with this news. Jumping into a car I find my normal route out of the building diverted and a huge vehicle tries to collide with me. Dodging that I drive up a slip road onto a choked road but find this very basic car becomes seriously under-powered.

‘So I get out to walk yet find all hard paving has turned into lush green grass of wide-open meadows. The congested road’s gone and I’m sliding down a well-worn grass slide to then run, or move, much faster than I can really run across an extensive area. I head a few dozen feet above the land, as though in a glider, and some very large object or person rushes from the left to block my path. Totally unfazed, I deliberately collide into it and it smashes into oblivion without halting or affecting my movement.

‘On the nearby horizon an unusual low building looms into view but, as I approach this destination, the alarm clock goes off!!

‘An initial interpretation came with great excitement in view of several revival meetings this month. I believe the Lord gave the above heading for my note of this lucid dream.

‘All this needed weighing BUT I didn’t expect confirmation and more insights not only in connection with the Gathering itself but also with the prophetic word reported at the Gathering’s Inception Meeting in Nov 2010!…’

This continues with details of three subsequent days’ events, as revealed in Father Let Your Kingdom Come.  There, you will read why and how that dream’s location directly tied in with the RA gathering’s venue. It was only much later upon reading an account of the event that I received confirmation of my declaration “They’re setting up the Kingdom!” in its echoing the idea behind what Californian Bill Johnson offered there in London:

“We would look back at 1st September 2011 as the day things changed in the UK.”

David Edward Pike, a Welsh delegate, noted that Bill went to say it might take time for the impact of this day to be seen and felt across the nation, but gradually it would come. Chris Welch of Hampshire also noted him as saying,

“There’s something about September 1st. I believe you can write it down…‘Everything changed September 1st 2011’….understand that a Kingdom perspective sees the oak tree as an acorn…I feel like it’s a prophetic word over this country: September 1st everything’s different.”

Of course we need a spiritually-minded historian’s take on events, but we do have a few things to ponder over with the Lord in connection with current events…Bill’s reference to growth from an acorn is particularly relevant to Christian ministry too.

As a personal consequence, that first week of September 2011 marked the tipping point in my decision to start blogging because, as indicated in that dream, the news of increasing Kingdom developments needed to be broadcast far more widely – and in public – than by private circulation of emails to my inter-church friends and leaders.

[Hand and Puzzle Pieces by Anusorn P Nachol, courtesy of Freedigitalphotos.net]