SHEEP NATIONS
SHEEP NATIONS
Matthew 25: 31-33
Sunday, October 14, 2013, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Thanks to all of you for covering my pastoral duties while I was on tour with Good News Ministries. When people asked me who was taking my place, I boasted that I had covered the pulpit with eight preachers, from within our fellowship, who are able to preach, teach and move in the Gifts. Our Church fellowship has at least ten others who are equipped, available and able.
There were many spiritual aspects to the trip. I will share today about the Lord speaking to me that “Wales is a Sheep Nation”.
Matthew 25: 31-33: “When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory; and before Him shall be gathered all nations. He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say to them on His right hand, come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared from you from the foundation of the world.”
There was a great visitation of the Holy Spirit on Wales in 1904-05. It is known throughout Christianity as the Welsh Revival. There were many involved in the birthing, but the leader-apparent was a young, 26-year old man, Evan Roberts. He received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit at Blaenannerch Chapel known as the “Revival Chapel” in Newport Emlyn. Our tour of Wales included a visit to the “Revival Chapel” and Evan Roberts’ home church, Moriah Calvinistic Methodist Church at Loughor. This is the place of the beginning of Evan Roberts’ work as an evangelist. His gravesite is at the Moriah Church.
He was preaching and converting people all over South Wales. This was a revival with youth on fire. A powerful visitation hit the churches. It was a visitation of love and power of a great Holy Spirit outpouring which completely transformed lives.
People were changed. The crime rate dropped, drunkards were reformed. Pubs reported losses in trade. Bad language disappeared and never returned to the lips of man.
The Revival winds that hit the hills and valleys of Wales soon became a hurricane that affected the world.
One elderly Revival convert stated some years ago that the Spirit was still burning within her heart---it’s never been extinguished---it had burned for over 70 years.
Our tour bus crisscrossed the winding, narrow roads, hills, meadows, and mountains of Wales. Every vista was a painting of lush green pasture land, coursed with streams and rivers. The pasture land was covered with sheep. The Sun metaphorically shone through the mists hanging over the land from the Irish Sea.
This is a nation whose topography reveals the Glory of the visitation of the Lord on the land. The villages have narrow streets between picturesque stone cottages, with roses tumbling over stone walls reminiscent of childhood fairy tales. The prosperous and generous spirit of the Welsh people is revealed in their shops, tea rooms and pubs (where we had lunch).
When making purchases, we presented the shop keepers with a handful of “pounds” and asked them to take whatever they needed to pay for our purchases (Smile). They were very gracious and honest in their dealing with us.
As I pondered the extraordinary beauty and prosperity of the lush and lavish land with sheep everywhere in the countryside, the Holy Spirit spoke to me, “This is a sheep nation.” Of course!!! The sheep are a “sign” of the Lord’s covenant with Wales. There was a visitation of revival in Wales in the 1800's, and 1900's.
One of the three castles we visited in Wales was Caenarfon Castle. This was the primary residence of the Kings of Wales and then King Edward I who conquered Wales for England. The heritage of the Prince of Wales is Christian.
Carnarfon and Castel Caerdydd were both resplendent with Christian artifacts including stained glass windows, crosses and scriptures. The residents of these castles were people of prayer and faith going back as far as the 12th century.
We climbed to the top of the castles prophesying and declaring the works of the Lord. We rode a train to the top of Mt. Snowden, walked to the edge of cliffs, and danced before the Lord on the side of the mountains praising Him for the beauty of His creation.
I prophesied and declared the Glory of God from the pulpits of Moriah Church, and The Revival Church in Newport. I prophesied at Evan Roberts’ grave that the fire of God shut up in his bones would continue to declare the gospel of Christ.
In Bedford, We stood in the pulpit of the parish church of Olney where John Newton pastored and wrote Amazing Grace with his friend, the poet William Cowper. John Newton’s pulpit has been set in a corner of the church as a witness to all who preach God’s word.
“Consider the wonder of God’s house, its provision of love, wisdom and nurture. Pray for all homes to become homes filled with Christ’s love and nurture for the whole family…Consider the church as a small house of God and his flock. Pray for all who struggle to see the boundless miraculous Kingdom of God.” (John Newton)
“Pilgrim God, You are our origin and our destination.
Travel with us, we pray in every pilgrimage of faith,
And journey of the heart.
Give us the courage to set off,
The nourishment we need to travel well,
And the welcome we long for at our journey’s end.
So we may grow in grace and love for you
And in the service of others,
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen: (John Pritchard, Bishop of Oxford)
Also in Historic Bedfordshire, United Kingdom we went to the Elstow Abbey where John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim’s Progress lived and was baptized.
While walking the grounds, the church bells rang out. We did not time the ringing of the bells, but to our delight they seemed to ring for at least 30 minutes to an hour.
Again, I broke out into worship and praise for the ringing of the church bells throughout the United Kingdom.
Kathie ministered in two conferences. The first was in Cwmbran, South Wales, Two Locks Family Church, Pastor Robert King. The second was in Moggerhanger Park, Bedfordshire, hosted by His Fragrance Ministry.
I want to salute Kathie Walters as a champion minister. After traveling all day in the bus, she was able to minister at an evening service and then again for six hours on Saturday standing on her feet and preaching the whole time as well as ministering to the crowds of people.
At the meetings in South Wales, the whole tour group was struggling to just keep our eyes open as we were recovering from jet lag. Kathie was awake and anointed. Her heart is to see the people set free from all bondages that hinder them from being totally free in the Holy Spirit. “The realm of the Spirit, the supernatural realm, the angels, heavenly visitations are meant to be a normal part of your life” (Kathie Walters).
I close with the Covenant Blessing of Ezekiel 34 and declare the blessing of the Good Shepherd, the Messianic Shepherd, Jesus Christ and His covenant of peace. The nation of Wales has great deposits in the land and people of visitations of the Holy Spirit. Faithful preachers have proclaimed and declared the Word of God. The land has been soaked in prayer and praise. Under the Shepherd, there has been and shall be showers of blessing with the covenant blessings of the Lord God upon Wales.
Ez. 34: 13-31: “I will bring my sheep out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains shall their fold be; there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains…(vs.16) I will seek that which was lost; and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick…As for you, O My flock, thus says the Lord God; Behold, I judge between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the he goats…(Vs. 23) I will save My flock, and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between cattle and cattle. I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even My servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. I the Lord will be their God, and My servant David a prince among them; I the Lord have spoken it. I will make with them a covenant of peace…I will make them and the places round about My hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in its season; there shall be showers of blessing. The tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am the Lord, when I have broken the band so their yoke, and delivered them out of the hand of those that served themselves of them. They shall no more be a prey to the heathen…they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid. I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the heathen any more. Thus shall they know that I the Lord their God am with them, and that they, are my people, says the Lord God. You my flock, the flock of My pasture, are men, and I am your God, says the Lord God.”
This is God’s covenant of grace toward His people and His faithfulness to His covenant promises. Jesus is the plant of renown of verse 29 and the true vine of Jn. 15.
Men of all nations are branches of that planting.
Hebrews 13:20: “Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant.”
The first mention of God’s covenant with man is with Noah when Noah found Grace in the sight of God. And God set a rainbow as a sign of his covenant.
The rainbows over the land were one of the many “signs” in the sky we saw over Wales.
Evan Roberts grieved that the revival was aborted in 1905. However, the Holy Spirit woke me this morning with the realization that the visitation of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit which began in Wales in 1906 (the 20th Century) continued throughout the 20th Century through “The Latter Rain” in the 1940’s and the restoration of the spiritual gifts through the Charismatic Renewal. Then continued through the Prophetic Revelation Movement.
As we move forward into the 21st Century, the Lord has set His throne of Glory in our midst to release the Glory of God into the nations. This was announced through the Golden Glory Revival. The “Glory of God” continues in the “remnant” across the nations. However, just as in past revivals, men and woman have tried to usurp the Glory for fame and prostitute the gospel for riches. This will not abort the Glory of God covering the whole earth just as the Baptism of the Holy Spirit visitation in 1904 was not aborted. For those who will receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, He covered the earth throughout the 20th century imparting His precious gifts.
Lord do it again. Just as you visited Wales and the nations of the earth in the 19th Century in salvations; in the 20th Century with the Holy Spirit Baptism; and again in the 20th Century with the Charismatic renewal I pray for a visitation of your Glory and Power in the 21st Century.
Mt. 25:31 “When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory.”
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries, Inc.