Do you understand that the urgent warning of the Holy Spirit to the Church today, (via His trumpeting call to prioritise knee-worn, gut-wrenched, tear-soaked, repentance), pre-dates the COVID-19 pandemic and was sounding long before vaccines and face-masks were part of our national landscape?
U.K. Church leaders today who bleat to applause about a “call to repent”, who pivot from the complicity of many churches with corrupt governments, all the while failing to adequately repent themselves regarding the chaos of the Church irrespective of these recent realities, are prophesying falsely and distracting the preparation of the Bride for His return.
U.K. Church leaders today who call governments to account before the Church, whose Twitter feeds are filled more with ‘anti-vax’ chat than their grief regarding the very idolatry in the Church that has paved the way for such abhorrences, are grievously missing the mark.
These church leaders are in fact perpetuating our corporate idolatry by displaying the bluntness of their profound prophetic impotence.
Iron sharpens iron,
Proverbs 27:17 (ESV)
and one man sharpens another.
And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!
Mark 7:9 (ESV)
Rather, the genuinely Spirit-wrought call to repentance of this hour must integrally feature the call to repentance from an arrogant attitude of superiority regarding what truly constitutes the ekklesia.
Brothers This Should Not Be
Here is one symptomatic (but critical) example of the false, half-baked call to “repentance”, currently gathering steam in the UK:
What is it that biblically constitutes ‘godly character’?
Not for one second withstanding the safeguard of Proverbs 11:14 etc., does it necessarily stand to reason that one’s character is godly because one is “submitted to another man” or because they attend a local congregation?
Conversely, does it necessarily stand to reason that one’s character is not godly because they do not submit to another man or because they do not attend a local congregation…indeed because, under God, they can not?
Commonplace thinking like this (reasoning to the affirmative) while still calling the Church to ‘repent’ (the Bride to prepare) reveals a profound prophetic ignorance regarding the Holy Spirit and the kingdom of heaven (let alone biblical illiteracy).
Brothers, forget losing sleep over mandatory vaccinations and deliberately skewed health statistics, this absurd form of christian spirituality (that divides and rejects over the presupposition that one brother is false because he is regarded as unconventional) is what the LORD first calls us to repent about!
Why? because it is precisely indicators like this that have prepared the way for these other pictures of the LORD’s judgment (muzzled, socially-distanced worship) to emerge and take root.
“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?
But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”
Luke 6: 46,49 (ESV)
Kingdom at Hand
The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”
Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”
Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you can not bear to hear my word.
Luke 17:20-21; 18:17; John 8:43 (ESV)
In the first place, (for both Christian and non-christian), it is the intimate proximity of this kingdom to us that explains the urgency of His command for us to repent.
Are our repentance-calling church leaders today understanding the kingdom of heaven even slightly?
If you are calling the Church to repent from your lofty pulpit without truly seeing or discerning the kingdom of heaven, while not eagerly desiring the gifts of the Spirit, (especially prophecy), you are prophesying from your carnal mind. If you are calling the Church to repent while refusing to live peaceably with brothers who do not conform to your rigid understanding of godly character, you are a pharisaical hypocrite.
Forget the masks and the vaccines, chaps! Focus on your unwillingness to be honest and truthful in emails, your reticence to be humble so as to listen or, indeed, rejoicing in the presence of olive branches when it is gently acknowledged that, sometimes, we all get some things wrong.
And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,
“‘This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”
Mark 7:5-8 ESV
Appeal to Listen
It is right to pray that the Spirit of God would stem the rising tide of pastoral brothers inside the denominations (and para-church organisations) who are unwilling to truly listen to (nor thoroughly read) their prophetic brothers outside of them.
It is a cosmic joke that pastoral brothers inside the denominations are calling for repentance in the Church while balking from the sincerity of prophetic brothers outside of them, who have paid (and are paying) a cost that they know not of.
It is a kingdom disgrace that pastoral brothers inside the denominations ostracise prophetic brothers outside of them for their conscience-conscription and, if needs be, for their willingness to stand utterly alone.
Dear pastoral brothers serving inside the denominations, please would you stop and listen? You may feel that you are ‘on fire’, lauded and received, but if you do not listen you will surely calcify.
One-fold Ministry
It is the abandonment of the five-fold ministry in the local church that explains this death and dearth of spiritual authority in our land.
Tradition trumps kingdom; denomination trumps Spirit.
The Church will only come to truly repent regarding infinitely lesser issues (such as heinous face-masks and sinister vaccines) when we first come to repent about the chronic, long-term sullying of His glorious Name in our midst.
Our repentance is not initially to busy itself by recognising our obedience to the anti-Christ, our silent complicity regarding abortion, our ensnared fear of evangelism and lethal lethargy concerning prayer.
Our repentance is first and foremost to be fully absorbed by the dire reality that He has long since withdrawn His glory from us (ICHABOD) and that we have not even noticed so as to enquire as to why.
Before preaching repentance, first we must thaw from the ice, cover our mouths and practice repentance.
“Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth
Job 40:4 ESV
All denomination (and it’s hydra-headed species of pride) must bow to the coming King Jesus and not shoehorn their preaching about repentance into their systems that have required it.
In the words of J C Ryle who, (particularly in his later life, distressed as he was from the threat of both evangelical liberalism, legalism and counterfeit Catholicism) was a man who truly understood what it meant to personally repent for himself (and his broken family), to authentically call for national repentance in the comatose Church, to genuinely fear God and not man and, if needs be, to stand utterly alone.
“We want more boldness among the friends of truth. There is far too much tendency to sit still and wait for committees…We want more men who are not afraid to stand alone. It is truth, not numbers, which shall always in the end prevail. We have the truth, and we need not be ashamed to say so. The judgment day will prove who is right, and to that day we boldly appeal.”
J C Ryle
firebrandnotes.com 
very well written. wake up challenging truth. bless you for sharing
Thanks for reading, Bruce
My hope is not in the church. My hope is in Jesus. We are warmed about the great falling away and I do believe that the wheat and the tares will only be separated by Jesus himself. It’s not our job to do that. Jesus will select and draw out those for each of his purposes only he is in charge of the church. This article seems very rattled. The walk with God is a lonely walk. Yes the church is lost but that is the fault of everyone in those churches for not being hungry for God, seeking God or obeying God when he tells them to do something they are too much in the flesh not walking in the spirit certainly not carrying the cross of self denial and way way too much in the world. The church is a collection of believers it shouldn’t overly rely on leadership we are in a new era now and we must each have our own clear walk with our maker because we won’t in the future be sure of who to trust and we may be cut off from each other. Much the same as when we look at the survival of the fastest growing churches in the world- they are underground. They are the ones being purified by fire by persecution and then the real true growth comes not from countless fake spring harvest type revivals which will not stand the test. The parable of the sower Luke 8 is a sober warning- these are not unbelievers NONE of them rejected the word, they all heard it. For us all to be spiritually safe we must know the Word of God almost backwards because that is our spiritual armour and that is in the end all we will have to stand on. If we only spend a tiny bit of time with the Lord each day and have a bite sized reading and pray our carnal prayers all day long for our own desires and plans this is not a walk with God and we will not be able to stand at the time of testing we will easily be deceived and distracted.
You better believe this article is rattled. Woe betide anyone who is speaking or writing who isn’t.
“Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who feel secure on the mountain of Samaria…” (Amos 6:1)
Please be very careful with woes when addressing fellow believers. There is no righteousness only that of Jesus, so no I’m not at ease or secure if that is what you imply by that verse, salvation is a daily thing which can be lost at any time. The fear of God is what the church needs and it hasn’t got it for many reasons we will be persecuted before the church ever grows I cannot see it happening before then. Pray for persecution is what the Lord said to me!!! The Lord is interested in purified gold nothing less.
Nope, not implying anything of the sort. The scripture quoted simply highlights the ongoing danger that there is for all of us in suggesting that “being rattled” is necessarily a negative thing. Thanks for reading.
Nick just to be clear I do really value your blogs. There is so much lament to be had… every week our church people prayer that God will bless the government, the nhs, you name it and I really can’t find anywhere in the Bible where The Lord says he will bless unbelievers…! Or give them wisdom… Maranatha is all I can say!
“Our repentance is first and foremost to be fully absorbed by the reality that He has withdrawn His glory from us a long time ago (ICHABOD) and that we have not even noticed so as to enquire as to why.”
In reading this pivotal part of your blog, Nick, I am reminded of something Nicky Gumble said in humorous vein at an Alpha Course many years ago which was roughly along the lines of it being reported that God had finally had enough and had decided to leave the Church (of England?) and the response to the report being that “it was a bit of a blow but we’ll have to carry on”. I can’t remember the context of the quip but how prophetic!
Thank you, Dad… indeed… this makes me think of Matthew 27:24-26 (especially v25) X
Excellent article Nick! Much of what is called ‘the church’ has lost the plot, especially in the past 2 years. They are bowing down to the idols of the Government, the mainstream media and the medical industry in order to appear to the world that they are ‘loving their neighbour’ by complying with the well-planned global agenda.
Keep your lamp burning bright in these times of immense deception. Someone may see the light shining and turn to Christ in repentance… and be saved.
Thank you, Michele; good to hear from you 🧔🏻 I see the last two years as revealing what has been there for a very long time. Maranatha
Indeed it has Nick!
When the House of God follows the path of the wickedness of the world, then God will expose it. The ‘wise virgins’ will discern it and will warn others to flee. But the multitude will continue on in their blindness, marching to the tune of their ‘spiritual’ pied-pipers, who are leading them on the path to destruction. Let us pray that the Lord will invade the lives of many on that evil path and wake them up so that they will repent and return to their first Love.
God bless you brother.
“When I would heal Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed…” — Hosea 7:1