“Britain will burn if the church does not arise” – Pastor Chris Wickland, Fareham, Hampshire

If you’re not aware of what is happening in Great Britain, the nation is under siege. A quick snapshot of some of what is happening can be found here. A previous blog of mine also touched on the alarming plan for 15 Minute Cities which is rapidly rolling out.

Who could have imagined a generation ago that phrases such as acid attacks, honor killings, and rape gangs would become synonymous with London?

I’ve taken a solid break from the news for the last few weeks; it’s been good for the soul not to be sucked into the black hole of media. Despite not following the volatile goings-on across the United Kingdom since three little girls were murdered at a Taylor Swift event and the subsequent national protests, my mind continues to return to this nation.

The Lord has reminded me of the vast wealth of spiritual influence that’s come from the UK and the blessing it’s been on my own life. What a debt I owe. The spiritual giants of preaching, teaching, hymn-writing, and reform include:

• John Wycliffe
• John Wesley
• Charles Wesley
• William Wilberforce
• Hannah More
• John Knox
• D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
• Charles Spurgeon
• Dorothy Sayers
• Isaac Watts
• C. H. Dodd
• George Whitefield
• Smith Wigglesworth
• Derek Prince
• G. K. Chesterton
• C. S. Lewis
• Charles S. Price
• Evan Roberts     

More recently our church network’s partnership with Jonathan Conrathe has been a tremendous blessing to me personally as well as on our local community.

There’s so much to pray about here in our own nation, and with a volatile political season, we should all pray without ceasing. However, the Lord impressed on me so strongly the need to lift up Britain and all the UK in this hour, and when I questioned in my own mind whether I had much authority to intercede here, I sensed His firm resonance, “Your prayers and proclamations are critical because My Word does not return void.”

If you will advocate for the United Kingdom and our brothers and sisters there with prayer, here are some scriptures I’ve been proclaiming aloud:

“Afflicted [nation], lashed by storms and not comforted, I will rebuild you with stones of turquoise, your foundations with lapis lazuli…All your children will be taught by the LORD, and great will be their peace. In righteousness you will be established: Tyranny will be far from you; you will have nothing to fear. Terror will be far removed; it will not come near you…whoever attacks you will surrender to you.” (Isaiah 54:11, 13-15, NIV)”

“All who rage against you will surely be ashamed and disgraced; those who oppose you will be as nothing and perish” (Isaiah 41:11, NIV)

“We will cry out to You in our distress, and You will hear us and save us.’

And now, here are the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir….
See how they are repaying [our mercy] by coming to drive us out of the possession that You gave us as an inheritance?

Our God, will You not judge them? For we are powerless before this vast army that comes against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon You.” (2 Chronicles 20:9b-12)

“The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations” (Psalm 33:10-11).

and for the church especially:

“Attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ….No longer infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming” (Ephesians 4:14, NIV

“[The church] proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ—with all boldness and without hindrance!” (Acts 28:31)

“Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine” (Psalm 33:18-19).

Finally, I remember the prayer of Derek Prince as a brand new Christian serving in the desert of North Africa during World War Two. In October 1942, German Commander Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps had swept the British Army roughly 700 miles eastward, from Tripoli in Libya as far as the ridge of El Alamein, Egypt. Here the war-weary and demoralized British forces dug in for one final stand. If El Alamein should fall, the way would be open for the Axis powers to gain control of Egypt, to cut the Suez Canal, and to move into Palestine. There, the Jews would be subjected to the same extermination they’d experienced everywhere the National Socialists had taken over Europe. Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, was geared to assist in aggression against the Jews and was already engaged in anti-Semitic rhetoric.

Demoralized as this lengthy retreat was underscored with weak and frivolous leadership, Derek felt the Lord gave him a specific prayer: “Lord, give us leaders such that it will be to Your glory to give us victory through them.” Shortly after this, General Bernard Law Montgomery was installed, a God-fearing man, son of an Anglican bishop, and highly disciplined. Not to be hurried nor pressured even by Churchill in his strategies, Montgomery built up and instilled in his men the confidence that the prior experiences had depleted. Montgomery at one point reportedly came out and assembled his officers and men and said this: ‘Let us ask the Lord, mighty in battle, to give us the victory.”

The outcome was such that on November 4, 1942, Nazi commander Rommel was forced to withdraw his troops and subsequently all aspirations for control of North Africa and the Holy Land. This was the first major allied victory, and a turning point in World War Two.

The United Kingdom, and indeed the whole West is in desperate need of such a turning point again.

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