Open Heaven over Parliament

27th July 2012

We had a truly incredible morning as we rang bells in Parliament Square. Three of us went up from Bath, believing that joining in with the 'All The Bells' project, celebrating the start of the Olympics, at the Houses of Parliament would be a prophetic act that would shift the spiritual atmosphere over the Government of our nation.

When my friends Helen, Fiona and I emerged from the Underground station at about 7:40 am, I could see a number of large angels around the Houses of Parliament. It's hard to estimate how big they were, but they stood taller than the buildings themselves. There were six of them stationed around the Palace of Westminster. All of them were wearing golden armour that seemed to burn with fire. They had different coloured cloaks on, some red, some blue and some purple. All had drawn swords that seemed to be made of golden fire and they were clearly on alert or on guard. Looking up Whitehall I could see a couple more angels standing at the entrance to Downing Street. None of the angels were doing anything other than standing around looking watchful.

We had arranged to meet with another friend Janet and soon caught up with her, but other than that there was hardly anyone around. We were quite resigned to the fact that we might well be the only people ringing bells that morning - after all the effectiveness of a prophetic act is not dependent on numbers. Just then though, a young couple came up to us and asked "Are you here to do a prophetic act?" Somewhat astonished, we replied that we were, and asked how they had known - "We just did. God showed us."

As the clock on Big Ben moved towards 8:00am, the square began to fill with people. More and more began pouring in. By 8:10 there must have been 400-500 people in Parliament Square, about 300 lined up along some steps across the road and another 200 or so on the corner of Whitehall. Excitement began to build, where were they all coming from? Most of them seemed to be commuters or tourists, and other than the four of us and our two new friends, we had no idea if anyone else was a follower of Jesus. It didn't seem to matter. In fact we had the distinct impression that God was drawing those who didn't even know him into this incredible prophetic event.

Finally it was 8:12 and Big Ben began to chime, joined not just by us, but by quite literally hundreds and hundreds of people ringing bells of all sorts. Hand bells, school bells, bicycle bells, door bells, even the official iPhone bell app. The noise was deafening and the presence of God was tangible. All of a sudden I could see with my open eyes what looked like a huge trap-door in the sky above the Houses of Parliament open an almost blinding golden light began to stream through. At the same time all the angels began swinging their swords, as if they were fighting with other beings, though I couldn't see who or what they might be fighting. Then more angels came down through the open door, just a few at first, then more and more. They were dressed in many different colours, and they all wore armour that seemed made of white hot fire. All of them also had drawn swords made of the same white hot fire, and they immediately joined in with whatever battle was going on. It's hard to say just how many angels there were, but it must have been several dozen, maybe 40 or 50 in all. Then all of a sudden it seemed as if the battle was over. One of the angels, who had a purple cloak on and who I recognised as the angel of breakthrough who has visited before, lifted his sword to heaven and called out in a loud voice, saying this:

“Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!   

She has become a dwelling for demons

and a haunt for every impure spirit,    

a haunt for every unclean bird,   

a haunt for every unclean and detestable animal. 

For all the nations have drunk  

the maddening wine of her adulteries. 

The kings of the earth committed adultery with her,   

and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries.”

I recognised the Scripture as coming from somewhere in Revelation, though I didn’t know where until I looked it up later. The angel carried on calling out, and when I looked up the Scripture later, I realised it was most of the rest of Revelation 18, up to verse 20 I think.

Then it was as if the Scripture was just opened up to my spirit, and I somehow ‘knew’ that God was showing me that ‘Babylon’ no longer refers to the ancient city in a literal sense, but spiritually it represents the corrupt world financial system – the rule of money that has seduced the governments of the earth. I sensed also that as a result of the sound of the bells and the battle that I had witnessed, the Government of our nation was no longer to be under the spiritual influence of Babylon, no longer beholden to the institutions of finance and corporate greed, but was shifting and coming under the spiritual influence of the Kingdom of Heaven. In a very real sense, the angelic warriors had taken back the ground necessary for this shift to take place.

Then the angels all sheathed their swords as if the job was done. Now there must have been at least two dozen angels standing around the Houses of Parliament, and as I looked up Whitehall I could see dozens more lined up along the centre of the road.

As well as all the stuff going on in the Heavenly Realms, we became aware as we rang our bells that we were surrounded by camera crews and journalists, and by 'us' I mean the six of us that we knew were lovers of Jesus. For some reason the media didn't seem interested in anyone else.

Three minutes seemed like quite a short time to be ringing bells, and as it came to an end a succession of film crews and print media journalists wanted to talk to us, take photos of us and ask us lots of questions. They seemed barely interested in talking to anyone else. For the next half hour or so, the six of us were interviewed and filmed ringing our bells by crews from China, Taiwan, South Korea, Germany, Russia, France, Brazil, the USA and the UK (the last being a crew from ITN, and footage of us ringing our bells appeared on the ITV news bulletins later in the day).

What are you doing here? Why have you come?

It's hard sometimes to know how to answer when you're put on the spot, but each of us managed to say something about God wanting to bring change to our nation and the world. We told them that we believed God wanted to transform the nation by His love and presence.

One German journalist had concerns about safety.

Are you worried about security? Do you think there will be another terrorist atrocity like at Munich?

"Oh no! Nothing like that is going to happen here. God is blessing and protecting these games."

Do you have a message for the nation? Do you have a message for the athletes?

"We just want to welcome everyone, share God's peace and tell them God loves them."

How often do you get such an opportunity to share the good news of the Kingdom with so many people from around the world?  How often do you get to proclaim God's love, goodness and transforming power to people in 9 different nations? I would never willingly stick myself in front of a TV camera - only my wife thinks I'm photogenic :-) but God had other ideas.

Eventually, the park security people asked us politely to move on, so we went up Whitehall to pray and prophesy over Downing Street (much to the amusement of the armed police and soldiers on guard). I could see that there were now about a dozen angels lined up along Downing Street. We felt to proclaim the truth that this nation is no longer under the old spirit of empire, but is daily, more and more coming under the government of God's Kingdom; a Kingdom of love, freedom, justice and peace.

Later as we sat eating breakfast outside a café in Whitehall, I could still see the angels, and it seemed to me that they were a permanent guard over the ground they had taken. God began to speak to me; not audibly, but very clear in my head. He asked me if I remembered the last time I had walked up Whitehall. I realised that it had been during the Poll Tax riots in 1991. As I realised that God said, “I’m using the redemption of your personal history, to point out your destiny assignments.”

Almost immediately I began to get a massive download about what needs to happen next. Back in the 1980s I was involved in a number of protests called ‘Stop the City’. They were a bit like the more recent Occupy or anti-globalisation protests. On a specified day, small groups would converge on the City of London and take part in actions designed to disrupt the functioning of the various financial institutions – Stock Exchange, Bank of England, banks etc. I suddenly had a vision of a ‘Bless the City’ day, where small groups of people would go to the City of London to pray for a shift in the spiritual atmosphere over the financial institutions. I could see people sounding the shofar, and ringing bells, along with the bell that is rung every day to signal the start of trading at the Stock Exchange, and along with the sound of the City church bells (as in the nursery rhyme Oranges and Lemons). I could see them praying for business people, and prophesying over the financial institutions. I could see and hear people proclaiming the shift from Babylon – business, finance and commerce in the service of corporate greed and private privilege – to Kingdom – business, finance and commerce in the service of the common good; a shift from making money to creating wealth, from empire to a true common-wealth.

It seems to me that this is part of the same picture – another part of what we did in Parliament Square. There may be other, significant prophetic acts that need to happen as part of this shift that is happening on earth as it is in heaven, but for now all I know is that this is the next assignment.

We were all left feeling that had we tried to plan or orchestrate any of what happened at Parliament in any way, we might well still have enjoyed ourselves, but would any of the significant encounters and opportunities have happened in the same way? There's no way of knowing, but this way God gets ALL the glory.

Going down into the Underground Station for the journey home, we could hear the cheerful sounds of a busker playing West Indian calypso music. All of us felt drawn to give him some money. As we walked away we realised what the happy words he was singing to the happy tune were; "In my Father’s House are many rooms..."  We went back to talk, pray and bless him, and as we walked away for a second time, the tune was the same, but the words had changed; "Hallelujah! Hallelujah!"  Praise to You God, indeed!

Later on the way home we were stuck in traffic on the M4 and we passed the open-top bus that had been part of the Olympic Torch relay convoy. Written on the back were the words ‘Jesus Love to the Nations’ and on the side ‘From the rising of the sun to it’s going down, the Lord’s name is to be praised.’  Helen carried on a yelled conversation through the open window with a couple of people on top of the bus, telling them what had been happening in Parliament Square.

Afterwards she asked me, what I thought about the huge bell, twice the size of Big Ben, that was to be part of the Olympic opening ceremony. I told her I kept thinking about the Liberty bell created and rung to celebrate a nation’s freedom from an oppressive empire. Immediately the presence of God came on us in the car and I realised that as the bell was rung during the ceremony it would be another tangible sign of God bringing this nation out from under the spirit of empire.

Later while watching the ceremony, straight after the bell was rung, they began to sing William Blake’s Jerusalem, and I choked and cried.  I recognised in Blake’s words a prophetic, Kingdom vision of that very same shift from Babylon to Kingdom. Blake saw prophetically what we are only now starting to get hold of. Yes those feet DID walk, the Holy Lamb of God WAS seen, and that countenance divine DID shine forth – not the physical, historical Jesus, but He was and is here in a very real sense, because Christ in you is the hope of glory. Christ in His people in this nation DID in ancient times walk upon England’s mountains green, and He still does, and He in us is glorious, and as we live in the goodness of that truth and carry out the ‘family mission’ on the mountains or spheres of influence: government, business and finance, media and arts, science and technology, education, family, spirituality (yes these are slightly different from the 7 usually quoted - more on this in another post), we will see a real and tangible shift happen; from Babylon to Kingdom and we WILL build Jerusalem – not the physical, geographical Jerusalem, but a spiritual Zion, the mountain of Heaven’s government – in England’s green and pleasant land.