In Luke 19:35-40, Jesus arrives in Jerusalem, and the crowd begins to celebrate Him as King.
“They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road. When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: 'Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!'
'Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!'
Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, 'Teacher, rebuke your disciples!'
'I tell you,' he replied, 'if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.'
Jesus was referring to the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9, which foretells the coming of the Messiah to Jerusalem, and the Pharisees would have been all too aware of that, It says,
“Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
This celebration of the Messiah was short-lived, and soon the crowds were ready to crucify Jesus. But it happened, so that the prophecy of Zechariah would be fulfilled. It was a sign for the discerning that Jesus indeed was the Messiah, and also an invitation to reappraise what His Lordship meant.
In the case of Jesus being declared to be the Messiah, the stones never had to cry out. But in Europe, the stones are right now crying out.
I began to reflect on this last autumn when I was listening to N.T. Wright at St Paul’s Cathedral, and he remarked: “Our cathedrals are altars to an unknown god.”
This struck me as a deep spiritual insight. N.T Wright was referring to Acts 17:22-23 but reinterpreting it:
"Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: 'People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.'"
The cathedrals and churches still dominate the skyline of many if not most European cities, and St Paul’s Cathedral itself is one of the main symbols of London.
But as far as most people in Europe today are concerned, the God the cathedrals have been built for is an unknown God.
But something quite remarkable is happening. The stones the cathedrals have been built with are crying out. According to recent news, more than ten million people visited cathedrals in England in 2014. The research also showed that the highest motivating factors for cathedral attendance were peace and contemplation, worship and music, and friendly atmosphere.
So, the numbers of people visiting cathedrals are actually going up, as people are seeking peace in our restless and unstable society. And they seem to be finding it in the cathedrals built for the God many of them don't have any relationship with.
And, as many as six in ten British adults visited a church, chapel or religious meeting house in the last twelve months, according to a new survey. The survey results counter the more usual narrative of perpetual decline that has dominated the headlines in recent years, as it includes the other churches and changing ways of connecting with the churches, and not just the Church of England.
I believe that the most of us are failing to discern a deep but real undercurrent in our society, as God is preparing our nation and Europe for a revival and reformation.
The coming European reformation
In August 2009, I received a prophecy about the coming reformation in Europe, and since then, I have been looking and praying for signs for it. At the time, I was travelling around Europe, but I received the full prophecy a day after I got back to London. It was published in entirety in the Revival Times of January 2010. It says,“This is not what the world expects to happen. This is not what the church expects to happen. I will make it happen. My fire will be coming upon My houses again.”
The world has already written the Church of Europe off. Even large parts of the Church of Europe have already written the Church of Europe off, and they no more acknowledge Jesus as the Lord. But God has not yet written the Church of Europe off.
Signs and prophecy
Sometimes, it is initially difficult to discern the signs that confirm the prophecy or vision from the actual prophecy. Often, when you receive a prophecy that foretells future, God doesn’t explain every detail, no matter how much you ask for an explanation, but, instead, He lets the future unfolding of the events to do the explanation.Sometimes, the signs are very clear, but they are always there, clear enough, to raise confidence that the rest of the prophecy is from the Lord. They can also often be quite personal, when they are meant to trigger individual obedience.
In 1 Samuel 10 the prophet Samuel anoints Saul to be the king.
"Samuel took a jar of olive oil and poured it on Saul’s head. He kissed Saul and said, 'The Lord has appointed you to lead his people. After you leave me today, you will meet two men near Rachel’s tomb on the border of Benjamin at Zelzah. They will say to you, "The donkeys you were looking for have been found. But now your father has stopped thinking about his donkeys and is worrying about you. He is asking, 'What will I do about my son?'" 'Then you will go on until you reach the big tree at Tabor. Three men on their way to worship God at Bethel will meet you there. One man will be carrying three goats. Another will be carrying three loaves of bread. And the third will have a leather bag full of wine. They will greet you and offer you two loaves of bread, which you must accept. Then you will go to Gibeah of God, where a Philistine camp is. When you approach this town, a group of prophets will come down from the place of worship. They will be playing harps, tambourines, flutes, and lyres, and they will be prophesying. Then the Spirit of the Lord will rush upon you with power. You will prophesy with these prophets, and you will be changed into a different man. After these signs happen, do whatever you find to do, because God will help you. Go ahead of me to Gilgal. I will come down to you to offer whole burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. But you must wait seven days. Then I will come and tell you what to do.'" (1 Samuel 10:1-8)
All this detailed foretelling of what would happen next was there to prepare and test Saul’s obedience many years later. And it all happens, straight away, apart from Saul having to go to Gilgal, which happens many years later.
In 1 Samuel 13, Saul, now the king, waits for Samuel for seven days, but then his soldiers begin to leave because of their fear of the surrounding enemy. Rather than waiting for Samuel a few moments longer as Samuel had instructed, Saul offers the burnt offering, and that is the moment Samuel arrives. God had given Saul many signs—the precise fulfillment of what the prophet Samuel had foretold, but rather than drawing strength from the signs, Saul is swayed by the trouble facing him that day.
“And without faith it is impossible to please God”, as Hebrews 11:6 says.
It is because of this moment of disobedience that Saul’s kingship is rejected, although God gives Saul yet another chance to obey Him in a situation where obeying God would have been unfavourable to Saul, but he disobeys Samuel's instructions again.
Now, looking back at the prophecy I received about Europe nearly seven years later, I understand that God has given me a sign in the prophecy, and that sign is largely linked to what God is doing at KT. And perhaps it is a sign just for me, but it is enough—at least for me.
At the time of releasing the prophecy, I struggled with including the section on KT in it, not because God has rejected KT, but because the prophecy was about the whole Europe, and including one church seemed like an insignificant detail blown out of proportion.
But now, it seems clear to me that God had given that section to me as a sign of the reliability of the rest of the word. And I believe that we as a continent are entering a new season.
The prophecy says.
"My touch in KT will be so strong that the people in services will be weeping for the sins of the nation, and the weeping will come from the heart. They will pray, ceaselessly, and their prayer lives will be transformed, as My Spirit will guard their prayers. Their hearts will be shaken and stirred by My Spirit and they will walk by My power.”
Rather interestingly, for some years now, I have been asked to write the weekly prayers for national and international needs for Sunday services at KT, and looking back, we have seen the fulfilment of many of the things we have asked for our nation on Sundays. And yes, we have been weeping for the sins of the nation, not physically, but through prayer. But I don’t think we have seen the totality of what God will do in this area yet.
The prophecy also says,
“There won't be any big 'fireworks' but just steady prayer. The doors of the house will be open for prayer, and people will come and stand in unison, in the house. The doors will be open for anyone that will come, regardless their denomination. My house will be built upon prayer.”
It continues,
“There will be such a wonderful thing amongst My people that they, in their cities, will actually pray together! They will come together—not from every denomination but from many denominations—and they will join hands and pray for their city.”
This spring, we have been able to bring the London mayoral hustings to KT. At the hustings, all the evangelical churches and denominations in Britain are represented, and prayer by bishops from main denominations will be part of the proceedings. I don’t think that anything like expressing this level of unity in the British Church has happened at KT yet.
In many ways, this is nothing new, but to me personally, this political expression of unity is a sign of the unity God wants to bring to the Body of Christ in London. It won't be the fullest expression of this unity, but it is a sign that God's plan is on track.
There is yet another sign in the prophecy. It says,
“Europe isn’t one yet. It is broken. It is one continent, divided, and people are trying to unite it. This is not the day yet for the restoration of Europe. This is the day for the restoration of the church in Europe. These are the days of revival which will come before the days of persecution.”
When I wrote this in 2009, Europe seemed to be heading toward more integration, but the last seven years have shown a remarkable change of direction. Instead, the broken and fragmented state of the continent has been exposed through the financial crisis, deluge of migrants, and the rising nationalist movements in nearly all parts of Europe.
So, I believe that Europe is heading towards early stages of revival and reformation, against the "better knowledge" of the world and the Church.
It also seems to me that God is using the migrant crisis to awaken many churches around Europe, as Christians are beginning to respond to the physical and spiritual needs of the refugees. Nearly every week I hear stories about ex-Muslims being baptised to faith, and God seems to be using this to revive many churches, as believers in those churches are being energised to trust in God for change.
But like so often, the Kingdom of God is coming initially nearly invisibly, much like the mustard seed. Jesus says,
“What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.” (Matthew 4:30-31)
The work of God today in Europe is much like that; initially invisible, later on seemingly inevitable. Historians will be writing about it, looking for all sorts of sociological, economical, political and psychological reasons, but it will all come because of the seeds of the Kingdom of God that have been sown by God Himself.
You can connect with Marko on Twitter @markojoensuu and on Facebook at facebook.com/marko.joensuu or by visiting markojoensuu.com.
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