By Charles Gardner —
Looking back on an article I wrote a couple of months back, I am seriously encouraged to acknowledge that we could indeed be on the brink of a new era for the UK church. In discussing the effect of the Iranian revival, I had asked if we were about to see similar moves in the West.
My theme then was the effect on church and nation of blessing Israel, comparing American evangelicalism with the UK version and concluding that the church’s influence (politically, socially and otherwise) was directly related to whether or not she was friendly to the Jewish people.
Watching Jentezen Franklin, from Georgia, USA, preaching on Jonah with great anointing on TBN UK, I was not surprised to then discover how his ministry was directly involved in bringing comfort and solace to Israel at this time of turmoil. This remains a vital factor.
In my home city of Doncaster, we’re in the midst of a major gospel campaign focused on Good Friday being Good News! Many years ago, I shared a vision at a citywide Christian event of how a beautiful new precinct festooned with fountains would be built in the town centre. It would not be an end in itself but a sign of future fountains of blessing flowing over the city.
Within a fortnight, an artist’s impression of what I had seen in my vision was published in the local newspaper. Some years later it became a reality and was named Nigel Gresley Square, after the designer of the famous Mallard and Flying Scotsman locomotives, both built here.
In the run-up to the present mission, known as Passion for Doncaster, it just so happened that a succession of powerful Christian movies – Bonhoeffer, The Chosen and King of Kings – plus an outstanding musical, were shown at secular venues within the square. It was a special thrill being part of the buzz of theatregoers freshly challenged and inspired by what they had witnessed – right beside the very fountains I had seen in my vision all those years ago.
Tickets were sold out for both performances of It is Well with My Soul, a musical based on the triumph amidst tragedy of hymn composers Horatio Spafford and Philip Bliss. After the unspeakable loss of all his four daughters as their ship went down in the Atlantic – their mother was saved alone – Spafford was able to write:
“When peace like a river attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll,
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with soul.”
There are more stirring verses, and Bliss (who later died with his wife Lucy in a train disaster) composed the hauntingly beautiful melody.
Staged by Handiwork Productions, this outrageously evangelistic show is spellbinding in its professional presentation and brazenly challenging in its gospel witness, mixed in with great songs and wonderful harmonies boldly declaring the triumph of Jesus over the tragedies that befall us, and unapologetically urging the audience to make Christ their own. And there is plenty of humor thrown in with some very funny lighter moments to ease the tension.
It’s the kind of spiritual dynamite we need in our churches. At any rate, there is surely something special going on, backed by news from the Bible Society of a staggering five-fold increase in church attendance of young men in the past six years, described as a “quiet revival”.
So how is this connected with blessing Israel? Well, I can at least speak for myself. For since that vision some 20 years ago, I personally have answered God’s call to be ‘a helper of Israel’ and have persevered passionately towards that end, mainly with my ‘pen’. And despite what appears to be overall silence from the church over Israel’s current plight, there are also signs of a change of heart.
We are surely already under judgment as a nation and a church for the shameful way we have treated God’s chosen people over the centuries. But God, in his great mercy, appears to be hearing voices in the wilderness calling on us to prepare the way of the Lord, soon to return in magnificent splendour to be welcomed en masse by his brothers and sisters in the flesh as all Israel recognise the One they have pierced.
Will he find us going about our Father’s business, loving his own as well as all nations?
