UK needs to get sorted

Andrew wrote a post titled 'The UK needs to get sorted!' featuring some serious prophetic words related to the UK, and thought it would be a nice idea to 'outsource' prophetic discernment to me, which of course is a mixed blessing. Anyway, I used the opportunity to post some thoughts on how to handle prophetic words, and linked some of the content to the extreme weather conditions around Connect Europe meetings. This time there was heavy snowfall in the west of Germany.

My comments (more comments welcome):

Outsourcing prophetic discernment to me? This is a mixed blessing, Andrew. ;-)

But I could say a few things. First of all: like most people I get my daily share of so-called prophecies by e-mail, and I delete more than 90 percent because it's wishful thinking, vague spiritualistic talk or self-promotion. BUT, we cannot afford to throw away the baby with the bathwater under London Bridge. Cynicism doesn't help and can even harden our hearts for the real stuff. So let's be principally open and exercise discernment.

Secondly, when God seems to be saying similar things around the same time to mature prophetic people, independent from each other, then I would at least read it carefully and pray into it, because apparently He's asking for our attention.

You asked whether the prophetic impressions about the UK match with what we discerned at the Connect Europe gathering in Berlin. Only to some extent I would say. On the day you posted this (28 Nov) God reminded me in my prayer time about several specific parts from Handel's 'Messiah' (a German composer who lived in England): "He will come like a refiner's fire", "Who can stand when He appeareth?" and "And He shall purify the sons of Levi". It seems to me that there surely is a purification process going on, as a preparation for a deeper move of God.

Not sure if this is limited to the UK, as I experience it more as a Europe-wide thing. In the reformational transition from 'church as we know it' to 'church as a grassroots movement'; from false mediation structures to Christ in the centre, etc. God is asking for more radical obedience (holiness = being set apart for God and his purposes) than what we're perhaps accustomed to. The criterium is not a 'good program' or 'good initiative', but whether we really heard from God. There are godly seasons of catalysation, and it's important not to miss these. I sense we are in such a season.

Waters and rivers play a role in the spiritual realm related to cities and nations: yes.

It's interesting at least that everytime we had a Europe-wide gathering of prophets and those who work towards reformation and new expressions of the Body, we encountered extreme weather circumstances. The floodings in Prague and Dresden that you refer to happened at the time of our first Connect meeting in that area, in Herrnhut (birthplace of the Moravian prayer, missions and community movement led by Zinzendorf.

Last Summer when we met in Prague to press into the spiritual inheritance of Jan Hus, there were heavy floodings around Lake Constance, the place where Hus was killed. The intercessors praying there a few months earlier were led by God to take careful note of the water level in the lake. After they prayed about the killing of the early reformer, it was exactly 3,33 meters and God spoke: "Watch this season, as I'm in control of the water levels in Europe".

Last weekend we had another Connect meeting, this time in Germany in which we also looked into the 'organic church fathers' from this nation, and there has been extreme snowfall in the area of Munster, the city where the Anabaptists were killed.

So although I don't know specifically about the UK, and tend to be cautious with some of the impressions on this website, I would certainly pray into these words (ask God to show you what you need to know) and be alert to move with God in whatever way He is leading us.