Jeremy Douglas
I recall attending at least three Southampton meetings including Wyvern College (Danny Stupple) where Cliff's cautious approach to the blood red moons was a good check on my definite (but rather unfounded) view.
We also met at The Majesty House Centre by Sainsbury's and more recently at Kings Church Lordswood (Coxford Road) where the discernment message including flowers was so helpful.
It was good to see you both at Bicton Bible week and also at the Hayes conference before lockdown. I felt that the 2 Chronicles 7 passage was important at the Hayes because of what God could bring on our country too.
About five years ago I started praying that the Lord would show me anything wrong in my life. Cliff and Monica were key speakers at an event in our city and I went along to hear Cliff draw attention to the need for discernment.
Cliff spoke about his experience entering the house of a well-known prophet where he became aware of an evil spirit in the kitchen. It made me re-examine the ministries he was referring to and what it was that I wanted from them. Cliff encouraged us to identify false ‘flowers’ that are so easily hidden amongst the real.
Cliff and Monica alerted me to the seriousness of false prophecy and the beauty of humble dependence on the Lord.
Diane Sparrow
I’ve joined ‘Monday Mums’ who meet for lunch & bible studies on Mondays.Having recently been reading Cliff’s book: “The Post-Pandemic Church” and the battle between the forces of light & darkness, when the role of the Christian church in the nation will be crucial. Your words today confirmed the appalling state of the Anglican Church, which I’ve found very depressing over the years. It occurred to me earlier today that maybe I can suggest we study Cliff’s book.
We began subscribing to Cliff’s State of the Nation update tapes / CDs from the beginning and continue to look forward to these arriving.
We will always be so thankful to the Lord for Cliff and Monica’s Ministry and are so pleased to be able to join the Issachar Sunday Services now. May God continue to richly bless this amazing couple for many years to come.
Nancy Walker
In the 1980's when I was involved with the Lydia Prayer Fellowship, Clifford came to speak to us about preparing for hard times ahead and that we in Lydia, who had been interceding for the nation, would be protected. Following that meeting, I was looking out the back kitchen window and began to claim extra land from the farmer behind our property. I prayed for 20 years for extra land, and meanwhile, I took up the grass in my back lawn, made 6 raised beds and began growing vegetables taking advice from a family who ran a garden centre in the area.
Thirteen years ago, I was waiting on the Lord as the start of the New Year and God led me to read Jer. 32 about how God told Jeremiah to buy a field. I told God I would not try to make this happen or manipulate it in anyway, and if I was hearing right, He would bring the farmer to me. Two weeks later, I received a letter through my door from the farmer, offering me and also 4 of my neighbours an additional 15 metres of agricultural land. So, my neighbours and I began to meet together and negotiate all the details, but it took a whole year of negotiation ( plus spiritual warfare) but finally we each go our extra land.
There was a lot to do, but my family has helped me and now 13 years later, we have 2 polytunnels, several raised beds, and fruit trees and bushes. I have learned how to preserve food (bottle, freeze and dry) over time as well as providing produce for our 2 households ( 7 in the family). It has also been an opportunity to get to know my neighbours better and build community by sharing produce as well as enjoying shared meals together.
One year recently I found that the harvest wasn't very good which was so disappointing. So when I was out on my knees in the garden talking to the Lord about it, He reminded me about Clifford's word and directed me to connect to them and give into their ministry. That was a turnaround for me and I have seen God's hand upon the harvests since from that decision. All glory to the Lord and thanks to Clifford for the warning those many years ago. Now that we are in hard times, I find great comfort that God has been leading and guiding me in such practical ways over so many years now.
My late husband and I first met Monica and Clifford in October 1987. I remember it so very well, as “The Great Storm” occurred while we were enjoying their ministry at Lee Abbey.
Although I had been a Christian for many years this was the first time I can remember anyone “opening up” the lives and ministries of The Prophets in a way that spoke to my heart and gave me an appetite and excitement for The Word of God, especially the Old Testament Prophets that has enriched my long life ever since.
To my delight I learned that Monica and Clifford were going to relocate to Bedford and as I was living in Olney at that time, I was keen to find out what they planned.
I learned about the teaching days focussed on the Hebraic Scriptures. These were wonderful meetings where the Lord was present by His Holy Spirit. The teaching was wonderful, as was the worship and prayer. I can only say that I felt like a sponge soaking up all that the Lord had to share through his servants.
This was a special time in my life as The Lord spoke through His Word in a way difficult to explain, I guess this was a defining moment in my walk with the Lord. I learned and I shared with others.
Clifford, David (who has long gone to be with the Lord) and others faithfully opened the Scriptures and I was a keen pupil and anxious to take what I was learning to my local Church community.
Through his writing in “Prophecy Today”, through State of the Nation tapes, books, Prophetic retreat times, through celebrations and time of sadness and testing, Monica and Clifford have been an example, encouragement, inspiration and teachers over many years.
I am deeply touched by the fact they can even remember me, one of the many folk they have met and ministered to during their long years of ministry. I thank God for every memory I have of them and their willingness to serve their Lord and Saviour.
My life has been enriched through them in so many ways.
I cannot thank Cliff and Monica enough for all they have given to so many over countless years. We praise the Lord for your combined love, care and inspiration and the depth of insight into His Word through your teaching in person, in your many books and writings in the “Heart” newspaper and elsewhere on your CDs.
I have a fortnightly Homegroup in my home, when we share the content of your CDs and we study the Word and pray together.
Thank you for the update CDs and ministry of books and papers. This is our feeding indeed. Being part of a ‘prayer cluster’ across the nations is especially a blessing, as we soon discover that we are on the same wavelength in the Spirit.
We have been sharing about the Heritage Ministry of Issachar and how looking back over the years we have watched events unfolding, by the actions of government and the church. We saved news cuttings and shared with our small prayer groups, watching events. I do believe that as individual members of the body of Christ that God was drawing us to the starting point for the years ahead.
I have shared recently with my prayer cluster, thoughts about ‘Heritage’. One of the aspects is that as the years have gone by God has always been speaking but how have we been hearing Him.
I was a newborn Christian in the early 1980s and went along to a local Church of Scotland, Steeple Church, here in Dundee to hear a talk given by Clifford regarding statistical changes in Britain and the threat to the young, with the breakdown of traditional values and its consequences. The words ‘immorality affects the economy’ is rooted in my memory. Your prophetic word that evening was a strong word from the Lord and it was worth you making the journey from London!
The Lord was speaking out, but who was paying attention? We see since then that the same Church of Scotland is not in agreement with traditional family values, but now inducting gay people into the ministry and allowing same-sex marriage.
As far as the importance of heritage applies, we now have the Methodist Church going against the Word of God, with defiance. To ponder upon the heritage of the Wesleys and now the devilish mandate of the leaders is too painful to think about. We must by faith, know that God is watching with us.
I have friends in the Church of Scotland, who are perplexed at what all the fuss is about.” It’s a broad church” they say. And “Our minister would never agree to same-sex weddings, so we don’t see a problem”. However, I try to explain that a mandate from the Presbytery Leadership filters down and affects the spiritual state of the church. Unfortunately, it is beyond their understanding and so beyond any hope of unity in the Holy Spirit.
This is why we need the prophetic ministry supplying ‘streams in the desert’. The prophetic word will continue to go out as we pray for a continued heritage. Someone is always hearing, like myself in Steeple Church so long ago. Wonderfully God was preparing me for prayer today, for the time now.. It may be that God will close down those churches who are wilfully turning against the Word and those that are hungry will turn to His prophetic word for food.
I was only directly involved with Cliff and Monica during the four days of a course by The Centre for Contemporary Ministry. It is mainly through Clifford’s books that I have experienced his ministry and through Prophecy Today from the early days.
I was a late candidate for the Anglican Ministry, being in the Chemical Industry as a Chemical Engineer for 28 years and wanting to stay in industry as a non-stipendiary minister where people were. I thought that Ordination would deepen my understanding and equip me to be a better proclaimer of The Gospel. Looking back I soon discovered that this wasn’t so and I countered the destructive academic lectures with a strong group of Christian friends and the writings of Clifford, David Pawson, Tozer, J C Ryle, Lance Lambert and others. This obviously brought me to be at odds with traditional Anglican traditions. I don’t know how I ended up on the course at Bawtry amongst a mix of different denominations, but it was a great help and encouragement finding that I wasn’t alone in my Ordination training experiences. I have now been retired from full-time employment in the C of E for 24 years and the battle continues as most denominations seem to have lost the way. The Sunday afternoon Gatherings are are great blessing and encouragement in these dark days. We are blessed also by like-minded close friends and this seems to be the best way forward for our life and witness. Clifford and Monica’s Hebrew understanding is a great help.
During the last 36 years we have had several contacts with Cliff and Monica and count them as friends.
I remember going to a meeting, - I THINK it was in the Buxton area, but am not sure, when I reminded Cliff of a prophetic word he gave in 1984 at Bath Pavilion. In that prophecy he said the Lord was giving the Church 3 years to put its house in order or His judgement would fall on the nation, beginning with the Church. 1987 was a year of disasters for our nation. Cliff's word in Bath was vindicated.
Another conference I went to was at Kinmel Hall,- it must have been between 1986 and 1991. I was doing supply teaching at my daughter's school. Whilst on playground duty, as I was talking to one of the children, a gust of wind blew her fringe back and revealed a perfectly drawn pentangle on her high forehead. This was something that I was able to share at the conference.
Each time I shared anything with Cliff he treated me with respect, never once brushing me off!!
I have been receiving material from sites such as Prophecy Today, so got to know about Cliff and Monica and a little of what they do, but it is only recently that I have got to know them and their work more intimately. It came about through my connection with Intercessors for Israel in Jerusalem. I have been volunteering with the ICEJ at the Feast for seven consecutive years and was receiving the Friday prayer points from the IFI. During my first Feast I found out when and where the IFI prayer meeting took place and joined them at 6am on Friday mornings. Whilst there I was handed a leaflet about their upcoming Prayer Conference and tour the following January.
I applied for and attended that conference and have attended each year since. In 2018 and 19 some of us spent some regular prayer times praying into the Brexit situation and that was where I met Vanessa. She sent on some information following the conference and then when this year’s conference was cancelled, she contacted me to ask if I would be interested in being part of a small prayer group being planned by an organisation called Issachar Ministries which would be praying for the situations in both the UK and Israel. I was pleased to accept the invitation and have been meeting at 7am every Wed morning for a concentrated style of prayer employed by the IFI. I had heard of Issachar Ministries before but did not know that Vanessa was one of the Trustees.
I have been taking part in the Sunday gatherings and other related Zoom times in which Monica and Cliff have been taking part. It has been a lifeline for me as I live in Portugal and although I am part of a church here called Oasis/Shalom, it is very difficult to get most believers here to understand the importance of connecting with and praying for Israel.. Also it filled part of the gap formed during the Covid lockdown, when I have been unable to travel and continue with my various prayer ministries in different countries.
Probably in 1982 or 83, I can't be sure, Lydia Fellowship arranged for a conference in Swanwick, with Clifford Hill as one of the main speakers. That first morning we had gone through the welcome, announcements, praise and worship time, when Dr Hill was asked to come forward and give his address. At that time many of us had heard of him and we were full of expectation to what God would say to us through him. I seem to remember that he stepped forward, but then retreated and had a word with the leaders of the conference. After a while one of them came to the microphone and explained that Cliff had gone through a very testing time and that he actually did not feel strong enough to speak to us. There was silence and then it was suggested that we should intercede for him. Three hundred plus women rose to their feet, raised their arms to heaven and started praying for our brother. It was noisy, there were groanings and tears, and then the heavens opened. The Holy Spirit descended and with Him came comfort, healing and encouragement. It was one of those holy moments, when after a while quiet and silence fell on the congregation. Following on there may have been one or two words God gave to his faithful servant, I cannot remember distinctly. But after a while the speaker for the morning rose to his feet, went to the microphone and announced that he was much better now and able to give his message to us. I cannot recall what he preached on, but I shall never forget what happens when three hundred plus handmaidens of the Lord intercede for one faithful servant of God who was under attack and needed help.
In publishing a few of his books, and in welcoming Cliff as a speaker at Carberry Tower, and indeed much earlier in Dundee, our friendship with Cliff and Monica goes back quite a long way! Both were greatly appreciated. I also had a link with Monica and the British Church Growth Association - I think we published a booklet by Peter Bisset for the BCGA, but my memory is hazy. We were in Israel with him in the seminal year of 1986, very exciting it was at that time, and later when Chernobyl and everything else came to pass. Later, I recall writing a foreword to 'Today with Isaiah vol. 3' in 2002.
With Cliff himself, it was so good to be working with someone who had a track record in caring for the poor, but was also conservative in theology; and someone who had a serious biblical attitude to prophecy. He makes me think of the OT scholar Walter Brueggemann, who has written books such as 'The Prophetic Imagination'. Brueggemann takes prophecy seriously and presents it in terms of a vision which would do two things (a) help people to understand and critique current events, and (b) energise them to change things for the better. Brueggemann was facing in USA the same issue as Cliff in Britain. Namely conservatives who saw prophecy only as forecasting future events, and liberals who would simply 'jump from issue to issue'.
Although I no longer have the ‘State of the Nation’ CD’s I did have them for many years and really appreciated the insights and being kept aware of what was happening nationally and globally. I have always appreciated the prophet voice that comes from this ministry and how everything in grounded in scripture.
Thank you for all you do.
Last year I attended the first Issachar Ministries webinar series about the Israelites' exile in Babylon. It was a joy to listen to the teaching of Clifford and Monica as well as to have discussions in a breakout room with other Christians whom I would not have met otherwise. A few months later I found that the webinar series about the Seven Churches was also a delight and the leadership of Clifford and Monica engendered a real sense of community amongst us all.
So Issachar Ministries has been, and still is, a significant influence in my life, teaching me how to understand the signs of the times and showing me how to pray for our nation.
Cliff’s CDs were one of my main sources of teaching and I also came to a Conference that was held at Castle Donington shortly after the MI Air Crash and I really felt the Lord speaking to me there. I can’t thank you enough for your teaching and guidance for probably 20+ years. Thank you also for your book ‘Beyond the Pandemic’.
John (my husband) and I arranged for you both to come to Isleham, Ely to speak at one of your ‘Living in Babylon’ meetings, which was a joy to us. Sadly, we could not take an active part anymore, due to John having a long illness. However, we have continued to follow your ministry through CDs and Books. I have just finished reading ‘Beyond the Pandemic’, which I have so enjoyed. One particular scripture stands out to me, the Lord alerted me to it some time ago when I was running a home meeting called The Way Back and it has always stayed with me, so finding it in your book alerted me once again to the scripture Gen 15:16. ‘The sins of the Amorites has not yet reached full measure’ as you say Clifford, we are at the tipping point. What a long-suffering God we have?
I am now looking forward to your new book ‘The Post Pandemic Church.’
The earliest memories are from my Mother who passed across one of Cliff’s Update cassette tapes saying – you should listen to this! Well I did, and that’s when I started to follow his ministry – going back to the 1980’s – when there were many ‘catastrophe’s in the nation’ following a number of huge national on-going sins and no word from the denominational churches. I did then get Prophecy Today but found very little concern from fellow believers.
I attended a conference by Lance Lambert in Singapore in 1987 during a consultancy assignment which strengthened my hope in the Second Coming and my support for Israel. I followed both Lance’s ministry and your own from then on.
In the early 1990’s Cliff visited a church on the Wirral with the Team (St Mary’s Upton) – which was a very important time and enabled me to fellowship with some very loving believers from that church for a number of years.
I greatly look forward to the Issachar fellowship on Sunday afternoons! At the present time this has been very welcome and very much fills what would be ‘a void’!