News
Report from the School of Prophets Day
Feb 2011 by Adam & Ali McKeown
It was great to see so many from various cities and towns across the nation representing our wider family of Churches at School of the Prophets on 26th February 2011. We gathered together at Nettle Hill for a day of teaching, instruction, impartation and, most importantly, to hear what the spirit of God was saying to the churches.
We had the pleasure of welcoming Carl Wills and his wife who minister with the Pioneer network of churches internationally. The morning began with a time of worship and a sense that God wanted to increase our capacity to receive from his Spirit. Carl spent the morning sharing from his heart and recounting a number of wonderful testimonies of God’s supernatural grace along with some lively and inspiring ‘snippets’ from his journey with Christ! Because of Carl’s Romany gipsy background, he has had the opportunity to minister to that section of our society in the UK. His stories of God’s miraculous power, protection and angelic intervention were truly wonderful to hear. There was no sense of arrogance despite what Carl and his wife have encountered, but rather a genuine desire for the church to come into a greater level of intimacy with Jesus. Another clear theme of Carl’s sharing was the heart of God for all people and a promise of hope for those we encounter. A revelation of this will keep us from accusation and lead us to cover people with grace and mercy (just like Christ does for us!).
There was a great sense of God’s presence in the afternoon session where many where blessed with individual prophetic encouragement and sharp insight from Carl’s gift. Both Liverpool and Leeds Churches received significant words about increasingly becoming apostolic and prophetic communities who would affect the North region with the gospel of the Kingdom. It was particularly moving to see a number of young people involved in bringing God’s word into that region and stirring faith for advance amongst us.
Perhaps the most significant prophetic word that came could have almost been a ‘throw away’ comment in the midst of a very noisy company (let the redeemed of the Lord say so!). Carl used the story of Jesus raising to life the widow’s son (Luke 7: 11 – 16) as a picture of our family of churches. He talked about the coffin being paraded through the street and the large crowd who would have accepted that the life of the widow’s son was over. He prophesied that this is how many have seen the churches within Together. However, just like the story, Jesus is moved with compassion and with one touch of his hand will bring resurrection life across all we are involved with. This word came with a dynamic of God to encourage, revive and refresh those who have been walking this journey of the kingdom with us. It came with the power and ability to break us free from the lies of the enemy who might say ‘you’re insignificant’ or ‘your best days are behind you’ and fills us with hope and faith to believe that the best things are yet to come.
Whether you were able to make the prophetic day or not, catch what the spirit of God is saying to us corporately…the Kingdoms of this world really will become the Kingdom of our God and of his Christ (Rev 11:15). In the words of an apostle, pioneer and father to many: “We can be that people of burning hearts passionately advancing the Kingdom of God across the earth.” (Jones 1999)