I was excited this week to hear news of the announcement by the Jewish Agency in Moscow that more than 20,000 Jews had left Russia for Israel since March this year, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (read here for more on this). I was excited because I recalled hearing Lance Lambert, back in 1986, prophesy that the day would come when vast numbers of Jews would be free to leave Russia. In those days the only way they could leave was through a kind of underground network which was both difficult and dangerous.
Glorious revival or hard times?
My mind went back to the background of this prophecy in the early days of the charismatic movement in the 1970s. Those were exciting days to be a Christian and the spiritual gifts were being exercised in countless meetings up and down the country. One of the gifts, of course, was ‘prophecy’, and there were many messages being given to churches in decline, saying that a great revival was soon to begin. I was unhappy about these prophecies because I saw the level of corruption in society that had penetrated the churches in so many places through ungodly leadership.
Nevertheless, I was convinced that God was speaking to his people – but he was warning of hard times, not promising revival. I found myself out of step with most church leaders and I longed to seek the truth with leaders of other ministries. Every time I got into prayer, I heard the Lord telling me to call a meeting of ministry leaders from around the world. I constantly rejected this: saying that I am a nobody – I didn’t have an international ministry – I was unknown. But amazingly, one by one, ministry leaders in different parts of the world began contacting me!
I was convinced that God was speaking to his people – but he was warning of hard times, not promising revival.
Preparing a consultation
In New Year 1984, as a relief from a particularly heavy period of Parliamentary research into Video Nasties, Monica and I hosted a five-day prayer retreat on the South coast for a small group of ministry leaders, consisting of Johannes Fascius from Denmark, Kjell Sjoberg from Sweden, Steve Lightle from the USA, Gustav Scheller from Switzerland, Cecil Kerr from Northern Ireland, Julian Ward from England, Lance Lambert from Israel, and Adrian Snell – a brilliant young English pianist, singer and composer with a prophetic ministry. We all agreed that the Lord was telling us to call an international gathering of Christian ministry leaders from around the world seeking the word of the Lord for our times.
The only speaker was to be the Lord – in fact it was not to be a ‘conference’, but a ‘consultation of equals’ sharing what we were hearing from God in different parts of the world and seeking the Holy Spirit to direct us to the word of the Lord for today. It would not be a large gathering, but we expected over 100. Each ministry leader could bring an intercessor from their own community to pray with them.
We all agreed that the gathering should take place in Israel, but not in Jerusalem or any big city, but ideally somewhere around Mount Carmel. We knew that it would take a long time to organise the event, so we agreed to aim for the spring 1986. We also agreed that the small consultation of ministry leaders could be linked with a larger gathering of Christians from around the world to be held in Jerusalem. We would share with them any word from the Lord that we received.
It was not to be a ‘conference’, but a ‘consultation of equals’ sharing what we were hearing from God in different parts of the world and seeking the Holy Spirit to direct us to the word of the Lord for today.
In April 1984 our Parliamentary friends wanted to pay for us to take a break. Their generosity enabled us to take our friends Julian and Margaret Ward with us to Israel to search for the right venue for the two events. We found the Ya’Harot Ha Carmel tucked away in beautiful countryside near the summit of Mount Carmel. It was a rehabilitation centre built by the German Government as part of its reparations for survivors of the Holocaust. There were only about 20 residents now in the home which had bedrooms for about 200 and they were happy to take our booking as the first Gentiles to enter the place. We also agreed a booking with the Binyanei Ha Ooma in Jerusalem, the Israeli National Conference Centre.
Unparalleled upheaval
153 international ministry leaders and intercessors gathered at Mount Carmel in April 1986, with 5,000 people congregating at the Jerusalem venue. The major word we received from the Lord was that God would soon begin a great shaking of the nations. The two Scriptures to which we were drawn were Haggai 2:6-7, and Hebrews 12:26f.
A number of prophetic words were received at Carmel, and we all agreed that the outstanding word was received by Lance Lambert, who prophesied “a time of unparalleled upheaval and turmoil” upon the world, including, among other things, “by old and new plague diseases”.1 This prophecy is rapidly being fulfilled since the onslaught of the Covid 19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and the shaking of the world economic systems.
The shaking of Russia
There were two other outstanding prophecies that were declared at Jerusalem. The word I received was that the USSR was going to be the first nation to be shaken. The fulfilment of this began just three weeks later when, in April 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, scattering radioactive pollution over the whole continent of Europe and much of Russia. This began the great shaking that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the crumbling of the USSR in 1990.
The outstanding word was received by Lance Lambert, who prophesied “a time of unparalleled upheaval and turmoil” upon the world, including, among other things, “by old and new plague diseases”.
The second word received by Lance Lambert was that the persecution of Jews would intensify in Russia but there would be a great exodus of Jews from there and other parts of Eastern Europe, who would settle in Israel. This prophecy was heeded by our own ministry ‘Prophetic Word Ministries’ (PWM), which later became ‘Issachar Ministries’.
Operation Exodus
This began the fulfilment of the prophecy that we are seeing today, the background of which began in 1984 when David Noakes joined our ministry. He undertook all the travel arrangements for the Carmel and Jerusalem gatherings together with Gustav Scheller. Gustaf was running a school in Bournemouth for teaching English to foreign students and he had set up a small travel company to link with this educational work.
Gustaf came to Carmel and Jerusalem and when he heard Lance Lambert’s prophecy about Jews leaving Russia for Israel, the Lord spoke to him strongly. With the backing of our ministry, he set up an ‘Exodus’ programme2 and arranged coaches from different parts of Russia to the Black Sea port of Odessa, from where a ship brought the first group of Russian Jews to Israel in 1988. I was due to go on that first voyage, but I was ill with influenza and my place was taken by my colleague, David Forbes. I recovered in time to meet them on arrival in Haifa and to join in the rejoicing as these Jewish refugees reached the soil of Israel amidst many emotional scenes.
The fulfillment of prophecy
It is wonderful to see the fulfillment of genuine prophetic words received in modern times. But prophecy should always be exercised with caution in accordance with the warnings in the New Testament (1Thes 5:19-22). In the early days of the charismatic movement the spiritual gifts were being exercised in churches for the first time since the Montanist Movement of the third century A.D. Prophecy was new for us all and we had to learn to exercise discernment between the true and the false.
It is wonderful to see the fulfilment of genuine prophetic words received in modern times. But prophecy should always be exercised with caution in accordance with the warnings in the New Testament.
But Lance Lambert’s prophecy that we heard in Jerusalem had a ring of truth. He declared that the day would come when all the Jews in Russia would be free to leave without let or hindrance and many would make their way to Israel and would in due time find Jesus as their Lord and Messiah. That prophecy is being fulfilled today and many Jews from Russia are numbered among the Messianic believers in Jesus.
It is surely a time of rejoicing to see the fulfilment of prophecies that were true words from the Lord. But what does this mean for us? I believe that Lance saw this as part of an end times movement of Jews to Israel. I don’t know exactly how we are to interpret this today, but I certainly believe that it indicates that we are getting nearer to the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus. Therefore, we ought to be carefully studying the Scriptures to see what God may be saying to us in these days. I would be interested to hear from any of our readers.
Endnotes
1 This prophecy can be read here. It is also published in full in: Clifford Hill, ‘Beyond the Pandemic, Is there any word from the Lord?’, Wilberforce Publications Ltd, London, 2020, p. 80.
2 This became ‘Ebenezer Emergency Fund’ in 1991.
