OH Prophecies

Prophecies Over Loughborough Town June 2006

Loudly call for praise to God
Loughborough is made for worship… a city of worship and a city of musical instruments. Begin to mark the boundaries of your city, begin to have praise and worship services on the border of your town and on the boundary, marking the territory, setting up ‘no trespassing’ signs for the enemy. Re the bells: this area is like the rooster or the alarm clock. It has the ability to sound a wake up call, to bring forth a sound that can be heard for great distances (Sharon Stone)

Release of musicians – a band going to travel the nation (Martin Scott)

Called to the nations
Loughborough is a place of great safety, a welcoming home for many In the place Thomas Cook first journeyed  there will be many teams that come and go, and some that go and keep on going, carrying the sense of home with them. It is a sending and receiving base Loughborough is a place where God is gathering the nations for the outpouring of His Spirit, that in turn Loughborough might be a city that has an ability to touch the nations. Need to call for help from Leicester to reach our Asian population. (Sharon Stone)

Artists into cities of mainland Europe. Backsliders will come back to God by having the Spirit of evangelism upon them, speaking the truth when faced with the demonic even though they are not walking with God themselves! (Martin Scott)

Youthfulness, youth and children
There is a gifting in this town to be continually young at heart with an energy that defies all logic.  Churches that have been here for years will be rejuvenated. This is a place that can give new birth, to release new ministry, vision etc. It is not rooted in the past, it is a ‘today’ town, and we need to call the town into its destiny. Whatever is in the ancient past is not holding this place back. (Martin Scott)

Education was birthed out of the church (first school was in the Parish church)... schools and universities are going to flourish…there's an anointing and there's a favour that God has put upon those things. (Sharon Stone)

Revival is going to come to Loughborough through the educational establishments (Jonh Barr)

Training of young people across churches (Martin Scott)

There is a strong focus on young children and families in this town: parent and toddler groups (Sharon Stone)

A 3 fold cord
The church is about 9 centuries old and the Spirit is going to show how it has meaning for what you're doing right now…
9=3x3: It is a time of intensification for the 3-fold cord: 3 strands of the council, the church and the educational establishments to come together to serve the town 3 fold cord of worship, intercession and the prophetic: Loughborough a place for raising up of prayer minstrels 3 areas of Loughborough to which the church must pay attention: by the station and north/east side of town, Shelthorpe & Garendon Green - until that happens Loughborough is limping. (Sharon Stone)

Working with the authorities
Signs of two way access: where once there have been closed doors, God will be opening those doors  Open access for Christians into places of rule and people of influence comng into the house of God for wisdom and help - a going out and coming in. There are connections to be found into France, the Students Union and the Media. It is a town founded by benefactors  - a place for giving. (Sharon Stone)

Healing Wells
There are holy wells here: ‘the healing waters are going to flow again’ (Sharon Stone)

Numbers 10:1-10 – God is bringing clarity of sound which will not bring confusion… needs to be a marrying of action with the call. In the past the trumpet has been blown but no action has been taken and that brought about a people who are unsure, not willing and undecided. As the action is married with the call the people will start to fill the shoes of those callings that God is putting in place. It will be while you are at work and in the field, at home and in school that God’s anointing will hit you.
The church will go through a period of travail; we need to ask for strength and maturity to not settle for early signs but bring to completion the work started.(Martin Scott)

Loughborough in the balance
Loughborough is a town that is almost persuaded: we have to be a people that are fully persuaded in our own selves if were going to affect another group of people that are only partially persuaded.
This has been a place where there's been separation and division and double-mindedness, making people look confused at times and making people even depressed at times and causing people to start many things and finish little. You can't just deal with the fruit: God is calling this city to go to the root (Sharon Stone)

Numbers 1v2: the Spirit of God is now walking amongst the people and churches and there is a marking and counting going on, a census is being taken. God is finding those people who are ready to go to war, that are ready to say ‘I don't want to co-habit with what the enemy is doing, I'm not willing to settle for second best, I'm not willing to settle for a part of the vision I want it all’. God is looking for people willing to go to war - to be willing to let the violent take the kingdom by force. There will be a team of prophetic intercessors, blockbusters, safecrackers – the A team. Loughborough is a HUB. The unity of the leaders at the centre of the wheel must be supported underneath by intercession. Moments and mindsets: If the move of God doesn’t look as we expect we could miss it. There is a call to humility and the laying down of our reputation, expectations, agendas and ambitions. (Sharon Stone)

Prophecies Over Open Heaven

John Barr 1980s

Revival is going to come to Loughborough through the educational establishments

Roger Ellis, February 1991-The prophetic word that helped start Open Heaven

Roger Ellis was the speaker at a C.U. Houseparty in the Spring term. He had just been to a previous conference where an Anglican leader had prophecied to him that : “he was about to meet a group of young people who were going to set up something similar to what he had set up  (Revs on the South Coast). Only this time, it would take place in the Midlands.” Roger had set up Revs in 1983 with a group of 18 young people-a youth group, which quickly became a radical pioneering church. It particularly focused on the younger generation, both in terms of reaching out to them and then  training and releasing many of them into leadership.

This was the prophetic word that some of us heard when we were Freshers and that we kept in our hearts for the rest of our time at Uni, until we knew in our final year that God’s timing was right to plant Open Heaven in the September after graduating.

Martin Scott speaking at Open Heaven, November 1997

A church that would raise up leaders and be a sending church We would be an incubator, particularly for the birthing of business ideasGod’s church marked by the sublime and ridiculous

Word given at a conference in Sunderland 1999

The Lord says I am bringing some things that have been grey into a greater clarity, I’m bringing things into being black and white. For the Spirit of God says that there have been a number of things that you have been looking to work off and they fall into 3 areas and it’s almost as if I am going to start to work on the organisation says God, just as a shirt would look crumpled if it was lying on the floor, but yet when it is lifted up on a hanger it has body and it has shape and it has purpose and the Lord says I’m going to start to pick up some of the people in your organisation and start to hang them in the right place says God. But not in a way that would be controlling, or not in a way that would limit exposure to the things that they plan but just to start to bring you up to the next level.

The second area that I’m going to start to put in place is a mentoring programme because I want to start to hook some of those that have been around the block to start to guide and to mentor.

The third area is that I am going to make you seamless, I’m going to make the walls of you ‘student’ work seamless with that in the city, because you are going to be ones that find you cross over, backwards and forwards, from the four walls of your church out into the four walls of your city, for in this time and this hour I have a population that you are going to start to save, but before you get into that position says God, I need you in structure and I need the various people to be in place mentoring the enthusiasm that is going to go forward. You have been crying out, you’ve been fasting, you’ve been in prayer, but this is the time you are going to move forward when you attend to these three things.

Rich Wilson , March 2000

I.e. needing to create space or room, spiritually and physically. Without necessarily having the resources to fill it. Therefore, we will grow into something.

7 months later we moved into our property along Ashby Road!

Rich Wilson, September 2001 Genesis 29

This word was given 7 years after Open Heaven was officially started and corresponded to Jacob working hard and sacrificing for 7 years to get his inheritance-Rachel. However, he was given her sister Leah instead. After 7 years of pioneering Open Heaven we must not settle because we have not seen our full inheritance yet, there is more that is to come. But, like Jacob it means we must not settle but must continue to work hard, sacrifice and pioneer for another 7 years to get Rachel. Those who have been around for a while must keep active and some of us know God is calling us to give another 7 years, and those who have joined us recently must not ride on the wave of what has already been established but must look to pioneer themselves to bring about the next phase of what God has got for us. We must all stay active and pioneering.

Rich Wilson  2002

Loughborough will be better known for mission than for sport

Julian Richards Nov 2003

Favour on footballers to see salvation and a new wave of teachers into the schools. God’s anointing will be on our future children’s work

Pete Gilbert 2002

‘I see 3 phases of Open Heaven. Firstly a focus and impact on campus, secondly alongside that a focus and impact on the town and then thirdly coming alongside both these strands a focus and impact on the Nations’

Prophecies Over Sub-Groups in Open heaven

Teachers

“… teaching gifts, and he showed me that he was going to send a wave of Christian teachers into the schools, because he loves the kids so much. It’s just that their not getting it from their home life, the education system is failing … and that he loves kids and he wants kids to have contact with Christians. And there’s a quality of teaching, there’s a quality of Christians, a quality of person in this room tonight, and I see waves and waves of Christians actually getting a passion and desire to go into teaching. And it’s not about their careers, it’s not about teaching, it’s about the kids, ‘cos there’s going to be a connection with you and their light (?) and the influence that you can bring, upon so many. So if you’re in teaching, and if you’re thinking about going into teaching, don’t receive this in a way “oh now I must go into teaching, I’m locked in for life”, but just see it as a… as in your prayer and in your opportunity as you think it through, just look at it beyond a career, look at it beyond what shall I do with my life, look at it that there is a mission, there is a strategy, there is a sending of God into the schools at this time. It doesn’t mean that there won’t be Christian schools, there won’t be alternative methods of education, but, you know, the state systems gonna be around for a long time, and God’s sending people in there ‘cos he loves this generation, he wants to do something for them, ‘cos it’s gonna be lost if we don’t make connection with it.

So those of you who are teachers, just put your hand up again, just so that I can see you… Ok let me just pray for you – Father I just pray for all these teaching gifts here today, and I pray for a fresh anointing, and for a wisdom, and I pray for a sense of mission to come within their spirit, and they say in their own mind “well I don’t know how I can connect with these kids and bring Christ to these kids because of the restrictions of the system”, but when you live with a mission with a passion, you find a way. You find a way that you can do it that doesn’t compromise your integrity, it doesn’t compromise the system, you find a way, you make a way, because you are living with a mission. And I pray a fresh mission, a fresh mission and purpose will come into the everyday teaching, and they won’t see teaching as a hung drum challenge where they say mission… teaching is a mission that God has sent them into, to make connection that their generation, this young generation, may find faith and favour in Jesus – just to bring a fresh perspective and a fresh joy in this, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Football

Now… who’s into football here? Ok, football, can I talk about football for one moment? There is a greater way to favour, coming upon, those who are engaging, and seeking to engage, in football as a means of outreach and evangelism. There is a key time of strategy and management coming to you, and it’s gonna be very strategic, I see a weight of God coming upon you, I see an authority coming upon you, and I see a strategic management. And this is a time to think creatively, it’s a time to think strategically, it’s time to push some barriers, it’s time to do some new things, it’s time to really think and plan strategically in the whole area of football. And you are going to see God really do some stuff in the whole advancement of evangelism, and I saw a picture of this, and is was … two lads in a changing room and one of them took their tracksuit bottoms off, ‘cos their shorts were underneath, obviously … (thought I’d clarify that!) … and I saw the legs of a football player, and he was a member of the church. Now legs, because strength .. when you see legs it speaks of strength, it’s the strongest part of a man’s body, his thighs, and I saw the thighs. And there was a non-Christian in the opposite bench and they were basically stripping off to play the game, it was just before the game started, and the legs were exposed. And I want to say to you fellas who are playing football, as you’re engaging with your friends before the game and after game, as you’re strategically planning and there’s a new management strategy coming into this thing, God is going to show your strength as you witness for Christ. Don’t fear that when you witness for Jesus they’re gonna perceive you in weakness -  they’re gonna perceive strength in your witness. And the football and the witnessing will be a revelation of strength to these lads that you’re communicating with, and I want you just to have absolute faith, conviction and confidence the hand of God is upon this, alright? As you do whatever you do. Is that helpful? OK, just a word of encouragement.

Prayer – Well Lord, just thank you for these lads here, and I pray now that a greater weight of authority and strength with come upon them. And I ask for a strategic mind, a strategic mind, there’s coming a strategic mind of planning and management and strategy, and it’s not so much that what happens on the field, but there is a strategy off the field. There’s a creative wisdom and strategy coming, and I release that anointing and that plan to them, that there’ll be a clarity, that there’ll be a uniformity, there’ll be a faith, there’ll be an agreement, and they will be able to move with managerial, strategic planning and see an acceleration, an increase in people coming to Christ. And I just release the strength of Jesus, the lion of the tribe of Judah, let it be exposed Lord, let it be exposed, the strength of the lion of the tribe of Judah. Let Jesus, the man, in the name of Jesus, be released to their colleagues and their friends and those that they’re connecting with. I pray and break every fear of weakness in the authority of Jesus Christ, I break that off them – that shall not be their badge, it shall not be their banner, but strength shall be their banner, the lion of the tribe of Judah shall be their banner, the roar of Jesus shall be their banner, the coming kingdom of God shall be their banner. And I release it in their spirit, may they rise up in strength and authority and boldness, as they actually network and share faith with confidence and strength in Jesus’ name – give them this wisdom in this day Lord, and we are just looking forward to an acceleration of people coming to You and finding You through these faithful men, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Children

Now, Children. I saw a lot of children’s gifts here in the church - gifts and skills of working with children. I would like to suggest that God will use you as a community of God’s people, to reach out and do stuff with kids. It could be Saturday clubs, it could be homework clubs, it could be after school clubs, it could be lunchtime clubs, it could be games and fun, but I saw something in terms of outreach, I saw something in terms of evangelising … putting stuff on for kids, working with children in Loughborough, in your community. And you work with kids, you make a connection with the parents, and there’s an expansion of … the ministries and the gifts that God wants you … and … open up and creating greater opportunities for you and kids. Just put your hands up if you are the type of person that says, you know, at this season in my life, I would love to be able to do something for kids. OK, I’d love to be able to do something for kids. OK, well I see teams and I see children’s gifts and I think they’ll be … there’s more of you than that I believe, or more that that will be connected with that, if that’s OK – is that alright?

Prayer – Workers, all you children’s workers – to be! … Do you know, God loves children, oh he loves children so much – what an honour it is to serve children. Do you know … some of the things I look for in the quality of people is how they treat children and how they treat elderly. Because … children … adults can tend to give you a sense of self esteem or respect or significance, and all that type of stuff, but when you see somebody serving children and when you see somebody serving the elderly, it demonstrates a humility of heart, ‘cos they’re not in it for what they can get. And it just resonates with something with the Father – he loves children so much. And I’m going to pray for you now.

OK, father, I just pray for these people who have passion and desire to actually reach out to children, that they may come to Christ - that they mind find Jesus at a tender and a vulnerable age, that they may be rescued young, and that their families may be touched. And I just release a creative anointing, and I create anointings for children, gifts, wisdom for children, passion for children’s strategies for children. I pray Lord there’ll come a real clarity to this church, how they can release and mobilise these wonderful gifts, wonderful passions for children. I pray that there’ll come strategies for the church here, with a real clarity, and how to do it. I pray you’ll give them God-given communities, God-given schools, God-given networks that they’ll be able to work into. And I just pray for a wonderful release, in the name of Jesus, of evangelism and ministries to children, in Jesus Christ’s name. Bless them all as they make themselves available to you, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Well, you’re just such wonderful people, we could go on all night. I think for all of you here there is something special, just locked inside that God is waiting to pour out on this community here. And you have natural talents and brains and there’s a solidness here, I mean we, y’know, travel in different communities, and there’s something very solid here of strength and like a sound mind. But also at the same time, some of you are feeling quite childlike on the inside like, well it’s only me, yeah? You’ve got great jobs and you’re intelligent, but there’s a part of you that goes oh, I couldn’t do that, it’s only me. And God is saying that emotional part of you, that childlikeness, that He’s going to help that to grow up in maturity. I don’t mean that to sound like, y’know, you’re immature or anything like that, I don’t mean that, but it’s almost like your brain grew faster than your heart and, y’know, you’re using your talents out there but sometimes you hold back because there’s still that insecurity. And God is gonna touch that and help that grow, that you become confident in who you are, not just in what you can do and what you’ve achieved and what’s on paper, in your jobs, but who you are as a person, what you uniquely bring, your flavour, into the mix, into the community and into your workplace. And God is going to release that, so when you have those feelings of, but it’s just little me, yeah, just respond to God that like childlikeness grows up to maturity. And I tell you what, there is nothing you cannot do in this place, and impact Loughborough for God. It’s all here. It is all here. So be encouraged.

Overseas Prophecies

- I see a piece of string going out to different lights as people are working overseas - they will never be forgotten (Karen)

- In the war Germans 'met up' over Loughborough in their planes before 'going out' to their bombing locations.  Likewise Loughborough is a meeting/coming together place where people are brought together before being sent out to their mission targets (Karen)

- A linking together of Missions throughout the world (Bex)

- I see a spiders web coming out from Loughborough to each of the people working overseas.  Therefore they are linked both back to Loughborough AND with each other. (LJ)

- 'Church of Loughborough' - to be extended to 'Church of the World' (Paul)

- I have a picture of people in Loughborough working hard and earning a lot of money but living really sacrificial lives and giving to those in the field.  (Pete)

- I see someone stocking a fire with coal, just adding more and more coal, building up the fire (Paul?)

Prophesies from the weekend away -  December 3-5th 1999, Ledbury

To the whole church -
God is going to use this church for church planting. He is also going to use a number of individuals in the church specifically for church planting. There are going to be individuals who stay on in the church just for the sole reason of church planting.  So when you finish your courses or finish what you are doing you will stay on with the church, with Open Heaven in Loughborough and get ready to be sent out just for the sole reason of church planting.

 - Pete McKnight