Are we at a pivotal moment spiritually in the UK? Jon Bellamy thinks so.

Jonathan Bellamy

In April 2009 a word was given by a respected church leader in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire that we had been 'mining for silver, and now it was time to mine for gold'.

Incredibly, in the natural, in September 2009 the largest ever hoard of Anglo Saxon gold was found in a Staffordshire field. What was remarkable was that all 1500 pieces were warfare, including three crosses; and one which even bore the scripture 'Rise up O Lord and let your enemies be dispersed'.

Newspaper reports declared how this was the largest hoard since the famous Sutton Hoo discovery in 1939. When I read that, in conjunction with the find being all pieces of warfare I felt God say to me '1939, the beginning of WW2'. Later I managed to interview the head of Antiquities at the British Museum, the expert on this and other finds. He said to me that he believed this find was not only 70 years ago but '70 years to the hour!'

This gold find dates back to a time in our nation when the battle was whether we would become a pagan or a Christian country. And I believe that God is speaking prophetically to us through this gold find for our day.

I believe that through the 70 years connection God was saying that in the same way that this nation faced the threat of being taken over through warfare in the natural in WW2, that in the battle for the spiritual identity of this nation we face a similar battle in the spirit. 70 is a number that represents 'completion'. The same spirit behind WW2 still exists and desires to complete it's control and dominance of our nation. Somehow God was saying that that 'dark intent' of spiritual control had completed something in the spirit and had come to 'a position'. At the same time however a journey of 70 years for the UK church had come to a position of 'completion'. And at the same time as the enemy would look to take over this nation spiritually, the church was going to be caused to 'Arise and shine.'

This gold find was a prophetic sign that we had come to the 'start of war'.

The scripture 'Rise up O Lord and let your enemies be dispersed', relates to when Moses and the Israelites would take the Ark of the Covenant into battle. However today, as Isaiah described in Isaiah 60 'the Lord rises upon you, and His glory appears over you'.

In the last couple years the weathering, testing, preparation, and maturing of faith for many in the church has come about through challenge and trial. We believe for a break out of the glory of God in our nation, but it seems not to come through yet. Instead we keep standing, keep believing, keep maturing in growing intimacy with Him.

But now, at the end of 2011, are we seeing the glimmers of a shift taking place?

Some intriguing occurrences have happened recently that I feel indicate that 'in the spirit' we have reached a turning point in the nation spiritually.

The shift is from 'standing and keep standing' in the face of the enemy's 'giant-like' opposition, to now 'greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world', and we are now on the offensive to 'take the land' that the Lord is giving us as our inheritance.

2011 has been a year of transition and crossing over. But on December 17th 2011 I believe the Lord confirmed that we have now crossed a 'tipping point' from standing and resisting the enemy to beginning the process of taking the ground from him.

For me personally the last nine years or so has seen the Lord use one particular challenge in my life to build my faith - it has been the challenge of limited resource at Cross Rhythms. Over the years the Lord's hand has held our finances at such a testing level that He has used it to discipline me into greater and greater positions of faith.

On March 17th this year, exactly nine months before, God planted the seed in me to take on 'our financial giant' in faith. On that day we began a three day Esther fast, over the Jewish festival of Purim, specifically to take on this giant in our lives. The day after this fast we found out we would need to find £95,000 more over the next twelve months than the previous year! Just like Esther, who had 12 months to bring rescue to the Jews, we had one year to face our financial giant.