I first met Clifford Hill in 1986, when I was on the team helping to organise the Lydia Prayer Fellowship’s first International Conference in Stirling. He had recently returned from a gathering in Israel of people with a prophetic ministry and their intercessors. He shared a prophecy given by David Noakes, which had a profound effect on my prayer life. He also told us about the launch of a new bi-monthly magazine, ‘Prophecy Today’ which I immediately subscribed to (and subsequently received every printed copy that was published). With its sound biblical teaching and prophetic insight, it played an enormous part in helping me to cope with the new wave of teaching coming from America.
At the same time, in the early 1990s, John Wimber and the Kansas City Prophets were making waves in the UK churches. David Pytches’s book ‘Some said it thundered’ had being widely read in the charismatic community and produced a real sense of anticipation. John Wimber came to Edinburgh and the Usher Hall was packed with people eager to get to the front and be prayed for, including myself. There was such an expectancy that God was really moving in the nation.
Then the Kansas City Prophets arrived in the UK and Paul Cain came to Glasgow. He was pointing to individuals and prophesying over them and while the people from my fellowship were enthralled, I felt a real concern. I was so grateful to Clifford Hill and ‘Prophecy Today’ for advocating extreme caution, because I was finding it difficult to go along with all that my fellowship was accepting.
Fortunately, in about 1991 Clifford had come to Edinburgh, to say that Prophetic Word Ministries was launching a new ministry called Issachar, named after the tribe that had wisdom and understood the signs of the times. I was so grateful for the regular prayer letters supplying information and encouragement on how to pray for our nation.
Then in 1994 came the Toronto Blessing. For many of us, it became much harder to discern what was going on. John Arnott and his wife, Carol were lovely people who loved the Lord. At first it seemed unreasonable to say that what was happening in Toronto was not all of God. Many in my fellowship went over to Toronto and some were very blessed; their ministry did indeed seem to grow. However, the excesses displayed by other members of the fellowship were hard to ignore and it was a very unhappy time for many Christians, with some friendships not surviving. Clifford produced his book ’Blessing the Church’ (co-authored with other colleagues), which helped to clarify my own thinking, but not necessarily the opinions of those with whom I was trying to maintain a relationship.
It has been a difficult time for charismatic Christians, trying to stay in fellowship with those in their church, but realising that not all that is taught is biblical. It is particularly difficult at the moment, with the alluring type of Christianity coming out of the USA. I have been so grateful for the launch of the online version of Prophecy Today and Issachar Ministries in recent years, to help us discern what is right.