Colin Urquhart
And His ‘National Revival Centre’
When God sends a prophet to another
man of God, He expects him to listen, not ‘throw’ him out and slam the
door! Here are some of the dreams God has given us which ought to help,
rather than humiliate, Colin Urquhart.
The correspondence which I have reproduced on the
previous pages contains important aspects or principles which church leaders
must heed if they want to be in God’s favour.
It’s time for men to step down and allow Jesus
to have His way. That can only
occur where there is true humility, and people really seek God’s direct
involvement in their lives. When that hunger is there, the Spirit can enter
and baptise the person, spiritual gifts will manifest, and wonderful things
can happen in their life.
They should also be able to move on into more of the
truth of God.
All this is part of the work of the end-time Elijah –
restoring truth that sets people free; filling people with God’s Spirit; and
healing rifts and relationships. The basis of all this is humility.
But we have a Church today in which leaders are lifted
up, and have even surreptitiously lifted themselves up using the name of
Christ. While the former often cannot be avoided where the power of God
breaks through, the latter can, and should be condemned. Pride ruins God’s
work.
Spreading the Hot Coals!
The letters in the preceding
pages were written to a minister who has subtly placed himself on a pedestal
and shut out the lead of the Holy Spirit. He claims he seeks to do the will
of God but he is blindly following his own way. He doesn’t have the humility
to accept correction, nor the courage to change direction. So, he covers his
misdemeanours with a shroud of words.
But God is not fooled. He sees
all – without and within. And one thing He hates more than anything...
Hypocrisy!
God had us contest his
hard-heartedness. The result was a confrontation and conflagration. Sparks
began to fly! That was in the Spirit-dead sector of the Church. But there is
equal obduracy and pride in the Spirit-led sector too – perhaps even more
so, because of all the signs and wonders which God has performed there.
In the nineties I wrote to Colin
Urquhart, a well-known name in Britain amongst Pentecostals, evangelicals
and charismatics. He is the author of many books, some of which contain much
useful material to help believers in their relationship with God. These
attractive paperbacks have one major drawback, they begin to lead people
back to God, but they stop short of going the whole way to holiness.
Perhaps as an indicator of what
is amiss, is the author’s name emblazoned across the top of each book,
standing out proud in bold lettering. On most of his books it is larger than
the title and is the first thing you see. You can’t miss it! Is it a tell-
tale sign of his arrogance or desire for prominence?
When his ministry grew (Kingdom
Faith Ministries near Horsham, W Sussex), it expanded to larger premises
where there are meeting facilities for several hundred people. He then
adopted the name National Revival Centre. Does he think that HE is
going to be the centre of the revival that God will bring to Britain?! It
would seem so.
Some people will find my
comments abrasive and out of place. After all, love covers a multitude of
sins. Yes, and I have done that for many years, but I feel the Lord
prompting me to hold back no more. It is His time for exposure and
judgement.
Others will say I am being
inconsistent in exposing Colin Urquhart here by name, while I have not named
JR earlier. I will explain the reason for that later. (God gives everyone
time to repent before exacting judgement. Colin Urquhart was approached many
years ago, and rejected our input. But God is giving JR his allotted time.)
Don’t be deceived when it comes
to church leaders; there can be very strong unseen drives of ambition, of
power-seeking and control. Paul adjured Timothy that when ministers had to
be exposed, for the sake of the people who follow, they should be exposed
publicly that all may take heed (1 Tim 5:20).
So, let the chips fall where they may.
Prophesying of Things Not Right
In the early nineties, we
attended one or two conferences put on by Colin Urquhart. At one of them
(most of them were convened to encourage revival in this land) I received a
prophetic word that revival would surely come, and it would pass through and
overflow. Dan Chesney was with him in ministry at the time and was the
convenor of that meeting. After I wrote down what God gave me during a time
of quiet prayer in the meeting (I did not write my name), I handed it to Dan
Chesney and he read it out. On that occasion, there was some openness. Not
surprising really; it bolstered Colin Urquhart’s position and what he was
wanting to encourage.
But later after I had left the
meeting God spoke again. He said something very cryptic:
When the scales fall off their
eyes it will be as if they had never been.
The next day when we returned, I handed that word to him,
but it didn’t get read out. He probably dismissed it as being a false word.
“After all, Colin Urquhart, the great man of God, could not be deceived,
could he? He couldn’t have scales on his eyes, preventing him seeing
properly!” Well, that’s what most would think, isn’t it?
But it’s good to be humbled, and that’s why God allows
such things.
Colin Urquhart has a number of errors in his teaching and
up to now he has not been willing to face them. But he will.
Some while after the above event, I wrote to him about
his erroneous assumption that the Holy Spirit is the third Person of a
Trinity. His teaching on the Holy Spirit has big holes in it. It doesn’t
make much sense. So I sent him a thesis I had written, showing that the Holy
Spirit is not a Third Person, but is the agency of God’s working with
humans; an aspect of the Spirit of Jesus or the Father. This was later
published in articles and now forms the booklet What The Bible Says About
The Holy Spirit (£1.00). About the same time, I also asked him for his
permission to reproduce a useful booklet he had written entitled Meeting
With God. His response was arrogant and hostile.
With deliberately vituperative comment, he declined
permission to reproduce his small publication [that’s OK, I have plenty of
equal material of my own, but I thought he would agree to co-operate with
other ministries, and be willing to share, as we are usually willing to do
with our materials – we waive copyright on ours]. Not only that, but his
hostility and bigotry was so marked that he made a point of distancing
himself from me. He said he did not want to be connected in any way with
Midnight Ministries, nor should Midnight Ministries imply that it was in any
way connected with his ministry.
I wasn’t seeking association with his ministry. I don’t
need that. I was merely showing my brotherly willingness to share materials
that could build up the body of Christ and correct some doctrinal errors.
But he refused to even review what I had sent to him! From his response it
seemed that he thought he was so right and I was dead wrong in my claim
regarding the Holy Spirit.
I was astonished! This was supposed to be a man of God.
But then, David was a man of God, and he sinned dreadfully by making some
gross errors of judgement through arrogant self-will, too. God recorded
those sins as a reminder to all of us that none of us is above scrutiny.
Those in a position of power can easily fall.
Some years later, God gave me these two dreams about this
man of God:
§
3rd May 2000.
M. Colin Urquhart.
Colin had moved home. It was
an old property, run down, but with a large garden around it. There was
a wall separating the front garden from the back and he had started to
knock this wall down which separated the two gardens. He had demolished
it to half its height, but it was an unfinished job.
He was moving some furniture
into the house, and I saw him lifting an armchair all on his own. I went
over to offer to help him, because it was heavy, but he declined my
help.
Meaning:
The dream depicts how Colin U’s teaching is still in need of further
alterations. Nor has he finished knocking down the barriers that divide
brothers in the faith. When it comes to ‘furniture’ [doctrine], he
doesn’t want anybody else’s input or help to sort out some of these
difficult issues. He considers himself able to do it all by himself.
§
4th December
2002. M. Dream of a church founded by Colin Urquhart in Australia. It
had become big. Many people were drawn to it, probably because of the
miracles God had performed. That attracted people to it.
But there was a big problem.
It was fast becoming a church of Colin Urquhart, not a church of Jesus
Christ. Through what had happened, Colin was drawing attention to
himself. And people felt they needed to belong to his church,
which is wrong. This imbalance can only be corrected through proper
teaching. [This is provided in our book God’s Church – Whose
Authority?]
As I have explained earlier, church leaders must move out
of the way, to let the full light of Jesus shine through. As they stand up
front, between believers and Jesus, they are blocking some of His light
reaching the people whom leaders are meant to be serving.
Through what is coming (raising the dead in connection
with the truths this ministry will promote) I believe that Colin will be
humbled and accept more truth, as the following dreams portray. I wish him
no ill will.
Some years ago, when Richard was receiving many prophetic
things from the Lord, he was given this dream of Colin U:
§
12th November
1993. Richard gave Colin Urquhart a list of names of people and said,
“Do you think you could put these people up for a conference? Can you
take it to the Lord and see how He feels about it?”
Colin replied, “What do you
think about it?”
Richard responded, “I feel
God is saying you should put them up.”
Then Colin said, “Yes, OK.”
Colin accepted Richard as a person whom he could trust to receive
accurately from God.
One of the problems in churches,
however, is that where there is a prominent leader, the people are afraid to
counter any of his views even though they may see some things better
themselves. Church leaders have not got everything right, and some of the
members of their congregations know it, but they don’t challenge them, as
this dream revealed:
§
27th January
1994. R. Colin Urquhart’s church. We were in CU’s church [meaning, our
input will reach him eventually]. There were quite a few who agreed with
us. And there were others who didn’t agree with him either.
Church leaders with a big ‘set-up’ often give the
impression that they are very spiritual, but appearances can betray reality:
§
17th October 1994. E. Colin Urquhart’s family were on a
stage in front of a huge audience performing acrobatics and magic arts
[symbols of his preaching which can be a performance, with demonic
influence]. He was entertaining the audience. He was on one side
[showing that he is not at the centre of God’s plan for this land],
laughing with the audience, enjoying the entertainment, watching their
reaction. There was also the impression that he was spiritually very
dead and dry.
§
30th December 1994. R. Richard went to Colin Urquhart’s
new church [that’s what has developed since as the National Revival
Centre]. Colin was very excited about it. But the whole building was
rickety and kept moving about. It was very difficult to walk in a
straight line in the building.
Richard was in the meeting and God told him that He was
going to raise someone from the dead very soon. Richard was waiting to
see if Colin was going to accept it.
He doesn’t accept it now, before the event, because he
doesn’t accept what Midnight Ministries teaches. But he will accept it
later.
In May 1994 God gave me this dream of him:
§
I was in a big room [this imagery may be a combination
depicting the whole Church with the publicity that is coming our way]
with Colin Urquhart, and he was arguing with us.
What the dream implies is that
unlearning error is a far from easy process. People whose concepts are very
deeply rooted don’t give them up without a real struggle. The first thing
they do is argue with the ‘new’ truth. But, as God said in the prophetic
word earlier, the scales WILL fall off his eyes and when he sees the purity
of the truth, it will be as if he had always known it. The past can be
forgotten.
The first dream we were given about Colin Urquhart was in
July 1992. God is amazing in how He reveals things. Although it was the
first revelation, it will be the last about him to be fulfilled:
§
July 1992. H. Colin Urquhart and a group of men with him
were looking at a display of books with an eagle on all the covers.
[This is a figure of our ministry and was a prophecy of lots of
publications before they were written.] The eagle was large and vivid.
Next to the bookstall there were large potatoes stacked up which they
were admiring first. The potatoes were massive, the size of buckets!
[This portrays the huge and wonderful fruit that our publications will
be able to produce in people’s lives when they accept these truths of
God.]
§
8th March 1999. H. We were invited for a meal at Colin
Urquhart’s house. We were delayed and were late in coming. [This depicts
the lapse of intervening years. God had other things in mind that we had
to do first. He had us write all ‘our’ literature which lays a more pure
doctrinal foundation for the Church.] When we arrived, they made room
for us and welcomed us.
It is encouraging to know that
the outcome of what we are doing here, and of our former contact with
Kingdom Faith Ministries, will finally be positive. Nothing God does is
wasted. He had us go to Colin a decade ago, but it looked like it was all
wasted effort. It wasn’t, but there had to be a delay before the completion
of God’s plan.
Delay figures prominently in most of what God does with
people, because it takes time for people to change. The story of Joseph and
his brothers is an apt illustration (Gen chapters 37 and 39-46). It is a
type of how God is waiting for the different sectors of the Church –
‘brothers’ – to put their pride, their self-will and their independence
behind them, and heed the input which God gives to the prophet He appoints,
who is often either younger or less respected and whose office is not
acknowledged (until God’s plan nears completion).
God gave Helena this very significant dream in this
regard:
§
24th March
2000. H. Jesus Waits For His Bride!
I was busy cleaning toilets
[symbol of the spiritual clean up taking place in the Church] and doing
house duties [there is a lot of mundane work to be done to get the Bride
ready]. There was someone outside, like a fiancé, waiting [Jesus,
waiting for His Bride]. I would go and show Him love occasionally.
[Helena was put in the place of God’s people.] He was worn out by
waiting, but He was totally loyal and faithful to the woman (Church).
Meaning:
The Church is busy doing its own thing. Jesus is tired of waiting!
The dream portrayed Him
exhausted or exasperated by the way He was made to wait. Jesus says to
the Church: “WAKE UP! MY LOVE!” The woman wakes up slowly, smiling as
she does so, with demons leaving.
The above dream emphasises the fact that the Church is
asleep at this time. Sleep is a metaphor which can mean different things. In
the context of the Matthew 25 parable of the virgins, it represents her
blindness or lack of awareness of spiritual realities (which includes
deception to false teachings). [See our booklet The Ten Virgins.]
Isaiah was commissioned by God to cry out to the people
of God then:
AWAKE! AWAKE! Put on your
strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful garments O Jerusalem ... captive
daughter of Zion (Is 52:1,2).
He was prophesying of the
state of the Church (Zion) today. She is held captive by demons to false
teachings, to ministers who rule instead of the Holy Spirit, and to a system
of illicit autocracy which has been derived from Babylon. Jesus condemns it
and is crying out for her to deliver herself (Is 52:2). You are commanded to
come out (Rev 18:4; Is 52:2). So, come out!!
"A Christian exists to impact society"
The above statement is one of
those innocuous sounding half-truths that can be easily misconstrued so that
people are misled. It was stated by a Bible teacher on a promotional CD made
by Colin Urquhart’s Kingdom Faith Ministry, in 2004, called Impact.
When you take a closer look at
why it was said, it sends a shudder down the spine. There is pride and
self-seeking behind it – well disguised of course – as the deceiver, Satan,
always does!
Now I don’t mean to imply that
Colin Urquhart or Michael Barling who uttered the slogan are deliberately
deceiving people. Good men don’t do that, and even most false ministers
don’t deliberately deceive. They are just blinded to truth, and get caught
up in the drift that has developed, usually without perceiving why. They go
along with ‘the flow’, and it is human to seek acceptance, recognition,
prominence, or popularity. So, reaching more people is the aim, and that end
often justifies the means.
Slogans get coined to help
promote the agenda.
But we should always question
the veracity of what ministers say, and check their ‘drift’ according to
Bible truth. That is the first step in contending for the faith.
It’s Not His Time
Jesus said:
My kingdom is not of this
world... (Jn 18:36).
Jesus didn’t come to establish
His kingdom in this age. That is for the next age, the Millennium. His
kingdom has come, only in the sense that He works invisibly by His Spirit,
fashioning His character in the lives of the few whom He has chosen and
called out of this world’s society, ideologically speaking. They are still
in this world physically, and His Kingdom still awaits the birth of the next
age to be fully realised.
When He comes back in shining
splendour and awesome glory (Rev 19) all people will see Him. Then
His Kingdom will be visibly and fully established on earth, and all people
throughout the world will come to know Him and obey Him then (Mic 4:1-4).
But NOW, His Kingdom is not of
this world. That has massive implications for gospel preachers! Yet, few
perceive this truth. Many don’t want to perceive it!
The former is forgivable, the
latter is not.
Where there is wilful sin, God’s
truth is not able to shine.
Unfortunately, I have heard
messages by Colin Urquhart and preachers co-operating with him, puffing up
their audiences with false notions of ‘populist’ ideals – promoting
mega-churches, seeking many converts, impacting society to change it
radically in this age.
Yet, have they never understood
Jesus’ words? He didn’t come, intending to change society – to impact
it in that way. That isn’t what He intended.
He came to be rejected,
despised, forsaken, and to die (Is 53). His first coming was to live His
life as an example of righteousness for us to follow, and to die to pay the
penalty of sins that none of us could pay. In His footsteps we are to
follow, emulating that humble surrender to the will of God, not seeking
pride or pre- eminence, or popular acclaim.
It is true that the early Church
DID impact society! They turned the world upside down by their preaching
after Jesus’ death and resurrection. But they didn’t set out to do this.
That was not an objective. It was an outcome. Jesus laid the
groundwork for it. The disciples didn’t try to do that, nor intend
it, or plan it. They expected the opposite!
Had they planned to impact
society in such a way, they would have been guilty of pride. And, they could
not have done it anyway.
It was not because of
them, but despite them, that Jesus engineered what He did, and
society was impacted. But it wasn’t impacted in the presumptuous way Colin
Urquhart’s ‘team’ envisage. What came eventually was further rejection,
persecution and scattering, not mega-churches! That’s history’s record.
How Should We Impact Society?
Confrontation or contending is
an inevitable feature of what occurs when the gospel is preached. Upholding
truth, especially Bible truth, God’s truth, makes enemies. You don’t set out
to make enemies but it occurs. It happens when truth is resisted.
That is one impact upon society.
To most people it’s not a positive impact.
Positive impact is achieved
amongst the few who accept the truth and begin to live by it. But they come
out of society psychologically, and are no longer a part of it. They are
part of the ekklesia, the called out ones – ‘the Church’. And by
their positive example of living with God’s love, ideally others are brought
to Christ, too.
That is the ideal, and it
happens in some instances. However, often Christians are not good examples
in society. They tend to be the weak of the world, not the wise and
accomplished (1 Cor 1:26, 27). And society is not dramatically impacted by
such ‘models’. The overwhelming majority of people in society carry on the
same old way, ignoring the gospel.
Irrespective of the reasons why,
God can only call a few at this time. Up to now He has only planned to call
a few – in comparative terms. While believers are certainly millions, in
relation to the billions on earth they are a minority, only a ‘little flock’
(Lk 12:32).
But they can impact
society. However, it is not in the way that the promoters of Impact
meant. They imply that society could be radically turned around, and the
current system improved as a result. But God isn’t in the business of
patching up and improving a satanic system that by its very nature and basis
is destined to fall.
No, the impact to society is one
of witness. A witness comes to court to testify. A prosecution witness
testifies against the accused, presenting evidence or testimony that
incriminates him or her. And so it is with a Christian’s witness. He
testifies against society by his life, and to a lesser extent (where
appropriate) by his words.
Society, for the most part, does
not change as a result of his life. His life of righteousness condemns the
wickedness of the wicked. It brings the wicked under God’s condemnation.
This is the condemnation, that
the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light,
because their deeds were evil (Jn 3:19).
Just as Jesus was the greater
Light, so are you to be a lesser light, but one nonetheless that God uses to
bring evildoers under His condemnation. You don’t have to say anything
necessarily to condemn them. Your righteous example serves as a yardstick
against which they can compare their lives.
You accepted Jesus and chose to
live His way, but they didn’t, even though they knew you lived in His light
of truth. That will condemn them in the judgement.
That is the main way you are
meant to impact society.
What About Revivals?
“What about revivals?” people
will ask. “Like the Welsh Revival, when Evan Roberts impacted society in a
dramatic way, and they could no longer get the pit ponies to move because
their commands were swear words, and the miners were so transformed that
expletives were no longer heard on their lips?”
Agreed, dramatic changes have
been seen in isolated areas where revival has broken out. But these have
been relatively short-lived, and localised. And, most significantly, they
have been sovereign moves of God – generated by Him, not by the whim or plan
of man.
I believe they serve as an
example to us of what CAN be done, when people put aside pride, self-will
and self-interest, and are prepared to completely humble themselves. They
serve as a reminder of what is to come after Jesus returns to set up His
Kingdom on earth, and how wonderful it will be.
“So why can’t we achieve that
now?”
For the simple reason that the
motive of trying to achieve it is one that stems from presumption or pride.
Men who lead churches or large ministries have often hankered after such an
achievement. But they have overlooked the most fundamental and central
aspect of WHY revivals come.
In one word it is repentance.
But repentance cannot be engineered or produced by man. Only God can bring a
person to repentance (Rom 2:4; 2 Tim 2:25).
Repentance follows from the
moving of the Spirit on a person’s life, to bring them to a deep conviction
of their sins. They are broken inside, and brought to a graphic realisation
of how awfully they have lived. This happens as they are presented with
truth, and God enlightens them at that point to see the error of their ways.
Their genuine remorse allows the light of God to shine and transform them
within.
But show most church leaders or
ministers their sins and they will show you the door even quicker! For that
reason, revival cannot come via Colin Urquhart’s Kingdom Faith movement. His
presumptuous claim to fame in the name of his National Revival Centre in the
UK has firmly shut the door on that. He has wanted to be the centre of
revival that many have prayed for in the UK. But that very desire is what
will prevent God giving him such a destructive success – for success in the
physical can so easily bring destruction in the spiritual through pride.
The revival that is coming to
this land – and I was given a prophecy about this coming when I was in one
of his meetings about 11 years ago – is going to bypass those who seek
elevation through it.
Such revival is not coming to
impact society in the way most people humanly want. It’s going to prepare
people for the horrors of the Tribulation that is fast looming over the
horizon. Those dark days which Jesus prophesied (in Matthew 24, Mark 13,
Luke 21 and Revelation 6) are a mere two or three years away.
A heaven-sent revival, in which
people are humbled by a new awareness of their sins, is not going to come
through the churches, where leaders are not open to the restoration God is
performing. They don’t want to be told they got it wrong, or that their
agenda was not God’s but their own, part-influenced by Satan!
Most of them will fight it,
resist it, badmouth it – the very heaven-sent truths that are the foundation
of the next age when Jesus rules! Can you believe it?! – most church leaders
and ministry leaders resisting the very thing that many of them have
prayed for, longed for, preached about, and thought they would help to usher
in?!
Yet, that is the way God has
always worked – the unexpected way. It humbles. And that’s His greatest
purpose in all His work. Without it there can be no foundation for
righteousness in your life.
Humbling, and acceptance of
truth as a result of that humbling, is the foundation of revival. THAT is
the way to impact society, yet it’s not what anyone seeks by themselves. God
has to bring it.
Malcolm B Heap
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