You have only to switch on the news, open a newspaper, scroll through social media or take a stroll through a city centre to see we are living in days where evil seems to be flowing through our nation like a never-ending river. The question many are asking is can the tide turn for the United Kingdom? I don’t just argue it can here, I believe it is already turning, and this river of evil is about to be stopped in its tracks as the tide is turned and the curse of judgement on the nation is reversed.
You would be forgiven for thinking this is bonkers, but stick with me here and I’ll explain why I believe God is not only turning the tide but has already turned the tide in this nation. God has always preserved a remnant of his people who have refused to bow the knee and have instead cried out to God for him to come and change the situation. Whilst God has allowed the United Kingdom to go its own way (and suffer the consequences), he has not closed his ear to the cries of his people. Many have prayed according to the words of 2 Chronicles 7:14 that calls upon God’s people to petition him on behalf of the nation. I believe God has heard those cries and is now turning the tide.
“Whilst God has allowed the United Kingdom to go its own way, he has not closed his ear to the cries of his people.”
For decades, the United Kingdom has gone its own way pretending the people know best so there’s no need for God. It was Tony Blair’s government that famously proclaimed, “we don‘t do God” as it sought to enact some of the most humanistic set of laws ever seen in this nation, the consequences of which are being played out now on a daily basis to our detriment.
None of what we see today has happened accidentally or automatically: It is the result of decisions made by people and governments over many decades. Few would doubt God used the UK to push back and defeat evil during WWII. However, our response in the aftermath of the war was to look inwardly and (perhaps understandably) seek the fleshly pleasures of life rather than thanking God for saving our nation and using us to be a beacon of light in a dark world. Slowly but surely people started to drift away from their Bible, then they drifted away from church as other pursuits took precedence. Fast forward to now and we have a nation of people openly declaring no belief in God.
In the post-war years, the nation saw a massive growth of the public sector and the welfare state grew exponentially as the nation sought to rebuild after the horrors and ravages of war. This in and of itself was not the problem, but it caused the nation to look to government rather than God for the answers to the nation’s problems. Furthermore, it taught a generation to see the government as the only solution. Consequentially, government became the highest authority in people’s lives and in effect became a god-like figure for many.
By the 1960s, this focus on the self led to the sexual revolution where fleshly pursuits reached new lows. The rise of sex, drugs and rock & roll led to an entire generation never really growing up, being perpetually focused on gratifying the flesh rather than glorifying God. That generation are now well into life and in many cases are grandparents themselves having raised children in a secular setting who themselves have had children who now have little if any knowledge of God, Jesus and the Bible. It is no wonder that we see a generation growing up confused about their gender and sexuality, crippled by anxiety and entombed by depression.
“instead of building cathedrals that glorified God, we erected towers of glass and steel that attempted to exalt human over God”
The advent of the contraceptive pill reduced some natural consequences of sexual intercourse and deliberately sought to divorce the idea of reproduction being the purpose of sex. This was closely followed by the permitting of abortion which has now led to 1 in 4 pregnancies ending in abortion. The later introduction of IVF further put a distance between us and God by reducing the creation of life to a mere laboratory exercise where children are reduced to a commodity or right rather than a gift from God.
All the while, instead of building cathedrals that glorified God, we erected towers of glass and steel that attempted to exalt human over God. Despite massive economic growth, ultimately the economy tanked, people lost wealth, but it was not enough to turn them back to God. There is only so much going against God a nation can do before God brings judgement upon a nation.
We see in the Bible that Israel continually went against God and it eventually led to their exile. They were given opportunities to repent and return to God and yet they continued in folly to ignore him. We abandon and ignore God at our peril.
The situation is somewhat mirrored in the United Kingdom. As we have continued down the self-glorifying and destructive route of humanism, we have brought judgment upon ourselves for going directly against God in so many areas for too long. The result is a nation full of sex obsessed people unable in large part to hold down a stable relationship, who sacrifice their own children on the altar of convenience and refuse to commit to each other within holy matrimony. Marriage itself has been attacked and undermined with the idea two men or two women ‘marrying’ being legalised and promoted. We see the breakdown of the family and the attacking of the role of the father figure with many children now growing up in single parent or broken homes.
We see crime on the rise. We see an immigration system completely out of control where the authorities have no idea who is coming into the country. Suicide, particularly amongst men is at all-time highs. Drug and alcohol addictions are taking too many lives too soon. Climate alarmism is off the charts leading to many now worshipping creation rather than creator. We see the level of unhappiness at all time lows. We see the economy tanking. We see the cost of living rising whilst the quality of life decreases. We see division and strife throughout the nation. The threat of widespread civil disorder, perhaps even civil war has not been greater for centuries and all the state seeks to do is exert ever greater control over freedom of movement, expression and thought whilst continually asserting itself as the moral arbiter of what is acceptable and desirable.
The tragedy is this is all entirely avoidable if we would turn back to God, repent for the errors of our ways and choose to embrace righteousness once again. The Bible tells us, “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin condemns any people”. Many of the problems we are facing as a nation could either be completely or partially resolved overnight if revival were to break out across the country.
“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin condemns any people”
It is interesting that we are seeing amongst the young (a generation who have been raised by a population opposed to the truth of Jesus) a questioning of life and an asking of the big questions. They are looking at their parents and grandparents who rejected Jesus and are asking, ‘there must be more to life than this’. They see the dissatisfaction, the unhappiness, the complete lack of fulfilment and conclude there must be a better way and many are finding that better way through Jesus. They do not always know what or who they are looking for, but they know they’ve found it when they encounter Jesus.
The self-serving way of life that has promised so much, encouraging you to just ‘be yourself’ and ‘do whatever makes you happy’ or ‘love whoever you want’ with no boundaries has led to an entire generation unfulfilled, unhappy and feeling abandoned. It has had such a corrosive effect that it has now reached the point where there are even moves to introduce euthanasia that will inevitably lead to people who don’t fancy continuing their life being able to opt for an assisted suicide. It is chilling to think the generation that killed its children through abortion may now itself be killed by the children who survived through euthanasia. This world that has promised so much, has delivered absolutely nothing of lasting value and has spewed out so many on the scrapheap of society.
Evil is everywhere and the intensity of it can make it seem like its not worth fighting against but stand up and speak out we must. The devil wants us to sit down, be quiet and accept defeat. However, now is not a time for sitting on the sidelines or even the fence and expecting someone else to do the heavy lifting or just hoping that something will turn up to change things. Now is not the time for gazing into the abyss in vague hope of better days – it is time to be part of the solution.
“now is not a time for sitting on the sidelines or even the fence and expecting someone else to do the heavy lifting”
Now is the time to get your boots on and enter the spiritual battlefield. For the weapons we fight with are not of this world. ‘Greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world’. ‘We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but principalities’.
There is no government or political solution to the problems we face. We need to recognise that we are fighting a war that is primarily spiritual in nature. It manifests in the natural realm, but victory in this war will come only by using spiritual weapons to fight against spiritual powers of darkness and evil. In short, the only way we see victory is by having a spiritual solution to the spiritual problems.
Whilst much of the church may have lost its way in recent decades and compromised on scriptural truth, God has heard the cries of his remnant people and he has turned the tide in this nation. We have seen glimmers of pushback such as the trans ruling at the Supreme Court, free speech victories and growth in the church, particularly among the young. However, this is all evidence of a mere spiritual stirring. The full awakening is yet to come, and we are some way off a full-fledged revival. All it takes is a spark to reignite the fire of the Holy Spirit in our nation and we will see the nation transformed for the better.
“the only way we see victory is by having a spiritual solution to the spiritual problems”
I saw this most vividly back in May 2024. Whilst walking at the coast late one night, I found a stream that leads into the sea. As I looked more closely this stream was continually flowing and it looked like nothing was going to stop it. It would reach a few pebbles and just flow over them. It reached larger rocks and just meandered around, later correcting its course and continuing unabated. Nothing it seemed would be able to stop the flow of this river.
Eventually it met the sea and as the tide turned, it met its match and found the power of the waves of the sea greater than the flow of the river. If you looked closely, you could see the flow of the river had actually reversed having been overtaken by the greater force of the flow of the incoming tide.
I knew in my spirit there was spiritual significance to this, but what the Lord showed me completely amazed and encouraged me: He said the flow of the river represents the sin and evil of the nation. That it is seemingly continuing to flow through the nation, and it looks like nothing is going to stop it, not even the minor pebbles or rocks. The incoming tide represents the cleansing power of the Holy Spirit, and the Lord says he is turning the tide; the river has met its match and now God is preparing to come in and deal with the sin in the nation.
When the tide turns at low tide you can’t really pin-point the exact moment of the tide turning. It is only after some time you notice the water has come in and so you conclude the tide has turned. It is the same with the nation, the tide has turned but it will take some time before we start to see the effects of that turning and further time before the full reversal of the curse that was upon this nation is seen in full. In the meantime, we may still see evil appearing to have the upper hand, we may even face some defeats, but we can be encouraged that God has heard the cries of his people, and he is going to do something amazing in this nation. Not because we deserve it, but because he is not finished with this nation.
It would be easy to look at the nation today and conclude its all over. Maybe once it was worth fighting for, but no longer. But that is not what we are taught in the Bible. We are taught to have nothing to do with evil, but instead to expose it. To contend for the truth and advance the kingdom of God everywhere we go in every situation we find ourselves in. We are told to occupy until Jesus comes – in essence to be salt and light that gives flavour to life and exposes darkness.
God is not finished with the United Kingdom. In his mercy he has preserved us when we should have been over as a nation years ago. We do not deserve God’s mercy and grace, we can’t earn it. Yet, in crying out to the Lord he has heard the pleas of his people, and he will come and turn things around in this nation.
There are many battles ahead and the devil is already raging but we must remember that the Lord is sovereign, he knows what he is doing, he sees everything from beginning to end. Our job is to walk faithfully on the battlefield and do exactly as he commands.
So, can the tide turn for the UK? Yes, it can. God is not finished with this nation. We can be great again if we become good again. To be good, we must turn to Jesus and embrace the power of the Holy Spirit. God has already turned the tide; we will start to see the effects over the coming months and years but it wont happen automatically – we need to play our part. So, let’s gird our loins, take our place on the battlefield and fight the good fight for the advancement of the kingdom of Jesus.
I preached a message earlier this year called, “The Tide is Turning”, you can watch it here:
