Last year, Nick Szkiler took over from Clifford Hill as chair of Issachar Ministries, which is closely linked to Prophecy Today. In 'A New Era', Nick, along with Issachar Ministries advisor Sarah Winbow and the IM team begin to set out their vision both for IM, and for the Church as a whole in this nation, as we face new and unchartered waters. This is the first of five articles, all taken from Crossing Over, a booklet published by IM this summer (the other parts are available here).
The past two years have brought about an epochal change in the world and there will be no return to the ‘normality’ we once knew. Cliff & Monica, who began Issachar Ministries, have faithfully carried out the commission God gave them. The role of the new Issachar Ministries team is to do something Cliff and Monica were not required by God to do because the time was not right for it to happen – to enable the ministry to ‘cross over’ into a completely new season.
The Hebraic word for ‘Hebrews’ is ivrim. This literally means ‘those who cross over’. On the eastern side of the Jordan, the Hebrews were still a people being prepared; as they made the crossing over the Jordan, their fundamental purpose changed; they were no longer a people being prepared, they were a people on mission, on task. Their purpose was to possess the land, to rout their enemies and to live in the blessings that flow only from being completely obedient to God.
For us, this implies a change in perspective, in understanding and equipping, in order to live as those who actively take the enemy’s ground and live victoriously as overcomers within a nation and world that is hostile to almost everything for which we stand. We are not called to be a passive or stationary people but those on the move; those who are taking the necessary steps of faith to cross over and to implement God’s will and purposes in a new season of history. We are to be a people called into action!
Current Context
When Cliff & Monica began their ministry, the world looked very different to today. The moral compass of our nation pointed to God as the foundation of our laws, education system, government, social order and family structure. The Christian faith sustained our nation through the horror and trials of two great wars during that century. There were widely accepted truths and moral standards that were certainties in much of the world, particularly in the church. Societal acceptance of God as foundational to Western civilisation began to be less evident during the 1960s, 70s and 80s and was no longer widespread by the end of the 20th century.
Societal acceptance of God as foundational to Western civilisation began to be less evident during the 1960s, 70s and 80s and was no longer widespread by the end of the 20th century.
At the very beginning of the 21st Century, the nations were presented with a new kind of war in the aftermath of 9/11 – a ‘war on terror’. This was a misnomer. Terrorism is a tactic and does not describe an enemy. Linguist George Lakoff put it this way: “Terror cannot be destroyed by weapons or signing a peace treaty. A war on terror has no end.”1
Western governments exploited the so-called ‘war on terror’ to pursue long-standing policy and military objectives, to restrict civil liberties, and in many cases to remove basic human rights. The ‘extraordinary rendition’ of Guantanamo inmates to CIA ‘black sites’ in Poland where waterboarding and extreme interrogation techniques were used are examples of this.
The outworking of Western government plans post 9/11 set the stage for the kind of sweeping global changes introduced in 2020 to address a new threat – a war on a virus. The implementation of controversial Covid-related rules, laws and tactics, which threatened grave implications for the unvaccinated, represented a new level of state control and coercion. The use of behavioural science and nudge theory, inducing unwarranted fear in an unsuspecting population who believe in the benign nature of national government, has left our society defenceless against a propaganda onslaught delivered through heavily controlled mainstream and social media.
The implementation of controversial Covid-related rules, laws and tactics, which threatened grave implications for the unvaccinated, represented a new level of state control and coercion.
In October 2020, former Supreme Court Judge Lord Sumption said: “The British public has not even begun to understand the seriousness of what is happening to our country. Many, perhaps most of them, don’t care, and won’t care until it is too late. They instinctively feel that the end justifies the means, the motto of every totalitarian government which has ever been … The government has discovered the power of public fear to let it get its way.”2
Many of those who have spiritual ears and eyes to understand the times and the seasons have a real sense of history repeating itself, particularly citing comparisons with the rise of totalitarianism in the 1930s. The level of state-endorsed brainwashing, with endorsement from all levels of society has ushered in an unquestioning compliance which is unprecedented in modern times.
A warning
Whatever our views on One World Government, the World Health Organisation, or Klaus Schwab’s World Economic Forum and their ‘Great Reset’, something was very clearly going on in terms of societal coercion and control beyond anything related to a respiratory disease.
Covid-19 was just the opening act in a new era of top-down government and authoritarian control.
Covid-19 was just the opening act in a new era of top-down government and authoritarian control. The move to ‘Net Zero’ Carbon emissions in order to protect the environment, ‘Cancel Culture’3 ‘Transhumanism’4 and ‘Digital Identities’ to verify our status within a social credit system are all expressions of the ‘New Normal’.
As we contemplate the events of the past two years, one event more than any other should act as a prophetic warning of what we may soon face…
On 14th February 2022, Prime Minister Trudeau, a graduate of the World Economic Forum’s young leaders programme, did something never seen before in a Western Parliamentary democracy. He cancelled the vehicle insurance and froze the bank accounts of peaceful protesters from the truck convoy that had come to Ottawa to protest against his newly introduced vaccine mandate for all truckers crossing the US-Canada border. He did that by edict, invoking the 1988 Emergencies Act5, which contains no provision for its use except when voted on in Parliament and in specific circumstances. Trudeau invoked these powers against those who opposed his policies by peaceful demonstration in a supposedly democratic country.6
Here in plain sight, we see what is ahead for those Christians who will and who must stand for truth and righteousness as God wages war on secular humanism and works out His end-time purposes.
Trudeau did this just as easily as, in the following month, the Western powers that froze the bank accounts and impounded the assets of those Russians believed to be aligned with Vladimir Putin in the war with Ukraine. Here in plain sight, we see what is ahead for those Christians who will and who must stand for truth and righteousness as God wages war on secular humanism and works out His end-time purposes.
A new phase of history
A new phase of history has begun and we see the titanic struggle between good and evil unfolding before our eyes with alarming speed. The book of Daniel and his experiences of the awesome power of God in a pagan nation should give us the confidence that even when all seems lost and the consequences of sin seem overwhelming, God reigns supreme. He will be with His people and His purposes will be fulfilled.
The book of Daniel and his experiences of the awesome power of God in a pagan nation should give us the confidence that even when all seems lost and the consequences of sin seem overwhelming, God reigns supreme.
The battle we face is not for the faint of heart and will require a level of courage and commitment to our faith that many of us have not experienced and never imagined before. We face an uncertain future in a rapidly changing world and there is much work to do. As we respond to this call, beginning with repentance and in prayer, we will be challenged about how we will use our time, our finances, the resources we have seen as our own.
It is fitting to end with a scripture from Joshua 24:14-15 where the Covenant was renewed at Shechem:
“Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
The last sentence serves as a reminder of the covenant we have made as the Lord urges us now to take our place in His great end-time army.
Notes
1 A Fraught Narrative: Complicating the War on Terror, Bethel at War, Fletcher Warren
2 Covid measures will be seen as 'monument of collective hysteria and folly' says ex-judge, The Guardian, Lord Jonathan Sumption, 27 October 2020
3 Cancel culture or call-out culture is a contemporary phrase used to refer to a form of ostracism in which someone is thrust out of social or professional circles – whether it be online, on social media, or in person. Those subject to this ostracism are said to have been "cancelled".
4 Transhumanism is a philosophical and intellectual movement which advocates for the enhancement of the human condition by developing and making widely available sophisticated technologies that can greatly enhance longevity and cognition. It also predicts the inevitability of such technologies in the future.
5 https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/e-4.5/page-1.html National Emergency: 3 For the purposes of this Act, a national emergency is an urgent and critical situation of a temporary nature that (a) seriously endangers the lives, health or safety of Canadians and is of such proportions or nature as to exceed the capacity or authority of a province to deal with it, or (b) seriously threatens the ability of the Government of Canada to preserve the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Canada and that cannot be effectively dealt with under any other law of Canada.
6 Trudeau gives banks power to freeze funds without court order in bid to choke off protest funding, The Financial Post, Barbara Shecter