Saturated in Prayer
The Stoneleigh Bible Week was always saturated in prayer. For months before each Bible Week we would be praying, personally, in small groups at our home churches, in meetings of Terry’s apostolic team and with hundreds of leaders gathered at the Stoneleigh Showground during the days of prayer and fasting held three times per year. God often spoke to us in such settings giving direction about the speakers, details about the offering and so on.
Once the Bible Weeks began there were early morning prayer meetings open to anyone, ably led by Alun Davies, and before the evening meetings the leaders would gather to pray. Prayer changes things!
Prophecy
With such a large gathering it was not possible to have an ‘open mic’, but we looked to the platform party and a small number of other recognised prophets to bring words God spoke to them. Many were brought over the decade and here I will remind you of a few.
In 1993 Henry Tyler declared a powerful word that began with reminding us of the state of the nation, “…the futility of its culture and philosophies, the growing tide of violence and wickedness, and the damage and destruction to the hearts and minds of young people. Yet in the midst of this wickedness, I want to demonstrate afresh my righteousness and justice, I want to exhibit again my mercy, and pour my love on a crushed and enslaved humanity”. He went on “My deliverer will not be one individual but a corporate man, my beloved church; a people who know the power of the cross in their lives, who have counted the cost of swimming against the tide of evil, who have risked all to abandon themselves to the cause of Christ. A people who burn with a holy passion for the name of their God, a people who are constantly overwhelmed with the love of Calvary who live out their lives in holy community…I call you to partnership, to join me in this rescue plan to rescue the nation and the nations…”
In the same year Terry brought
“…many who are drifting will catch the drumbeat in their spirit… l want you to feel the drumbeat of God, to hear the trumpet call that’s going out. You are not here only to listen and to sing, but to get caught up in the great purposes of God….”
Millions of pounds, millions of people
In 1997 Ken Gott, a guest speaker from Bethshan Church in Sunderland, UK, preached a never-to-be forgotten word entitled “The Shout that Stopped God” about the blind man, Bartimaeus, whose shout of desperation halted Jesus in his tracks on his way from Jericho to Jerusalem. At the end he prophesied an electrifying word that even now we are seeing outworked:
“I felt the Spirit of the Lord say there’s still more, that frontiers will be moved, that my hand has moved boundaries…I will lift you and deposit you in other lands…the river will flow out…today something has broken in spiritual realms. You will know a new freedom. Even what you have accomplished you will measure as nothing compared with what is before you…l heard the Lord say ‘millions, millions’! Millions of pounds pouring through your hand to the third world, to Russia, to China. I heard the Lord say, millions of souls also…”
Unplanned pregnancies
In 1999 John Kpikpi (Ghana) brought an encouragement to “believe him for 1,000 churches to be planted throughout this nation…there is a river flowing and wherever it goes, the river will cause fruit to be born…there are going to be new births of churches. You have been used to planning births, but God is saying that there will be unplanned births. There will be unplanned pregnancies…and things that are not planned or even thought about will suddenly arise. Dare to believe for 1,000 churches.”
David Devenish frequently both brought prophetic words and preached prophetically. Particularly memorable was his preach from Zechariah 4 on using not a measuring line, the effort of man, but a plumbline, the standard of God, to build well. He also prophesied “I am saying to you that if you only think in terms of helping existing churches to understand New Testament principles, that is too small a thing. Receive faith to bring light to the nations…”, a word that exemplified his own ministry.
Prophecy is not to be taken lightly and can easily be forgotten. I remember John Groves once reminding us that we need to take the old ‘sepia prints’ out of the drawer and, looking at what they depict, remind ourselves of what God has said over the years.
God’s word does not fade nor return to him void, but shall accomplish that which he pleases (Is 55:11).