I am writing this post a few days after the total power outage in Spain, Portugal and Andorra. There was some impact on other nations but the power outage was total here. We still do not have our internet back, hence replying to emails and putting a post here has been delayed. At a practical level a wonderful reminder to how so many people in our world live. We were in total darkness so had the wonder of seeing the stars in a way we have never seen them in Spain before; we had no water and had the privilege of being by the sea to use sea water to ‘flush’ the toilets… all that lasted around 12 hours, minus the internet (now 72+ hours). Many in the world have no access to clean water… we remain so privileged.
Our context
Gayle had a birthday with a number of guests who were here for 3-7 days and in the middle of that time we had a session to consider where we were at vis-a-vis Europe. The global scene is in major flux with global shifts taking place. The USA, China are currently the ‘big’ powers and other players will have to find fresh alignments. Some while back as I was praying I had an image of a world map and ‘Latin’ America shifted and positioned itself under Europe; the African continent simultaneously moved under China, while India remained in position. There is an obvious interpretation and I am sure it will not be as neat as that but there was a direction of movement of the south dislocating from the north and moving eastward.
Europe will have to make some choices in the coming years as to her alignment and into that the UK will need to make choices.
Prior to Brexit, some months prior, a person we highly respect and love, LA, had a vision and in it a hand took the UK out of Europe, the result being that the colour drained out of Europe down into the earth somewhere located in the Pyrenees. Later a hand put the UK back in. Against all expectations the UK left the EU; our response was to travel with a number of others (our ‘tribe’?) to the Pyrenees to pray. Now the UK – partly catalysed by the issue of the Ukraine – is having to determine her relationship to Europe. Coming back in (not necessarily to the EU) on a military and trade basis would be totally insufficient, but we watch and wait. We call for something more.
Biblical signs
They serve two purposes. They point to what they are signing and they draw to themselves the reality of what they signify.
Spain seems to carry a ‘gifting’ of being the canary in the mine (a recently published history book used this analogy to interpret Spain in the context of Europe). Something happens to the canary and it provides a warning of what is to come. I have been convinced for some time that with we saw in the Pandemic is one of a number of chaos-producing events to come. (I have no idea on timing but I have seen that we will face something catastrophic where the global population will be reduced significantly…)
Europe
Europe has to find a new unity and learn how to travel in the flawed Chinese / far east vehicle. We were privileged to have 3 Chinese people with us when we came to the session on Europe and their presence kept us reminded of the direction for our future. (I say the ‘flawed’ Chinese vehicle – the European and Western vehicle has some terminal issues that we have learnt how to patch over – time to abandon it!).
LA some years back sent us an old map of Europe showing Europe as a queen (Europa Regina) with the head being Spain, the neck being the Pyrenees. The map comes from an era to illustrate a unity and a euro-centric view of the world. (The Queen is standing up – the head is ‘hispania’ and our maps of course would have the head to the west. The heart is Bohemia.)

Europe as we have it today:
- was laid by the Greeks
- strengthened by the Romans
- stabilised by Christianity
- reformed and modernised by the Renaissance and the Reformation (15th abd 16th centuries)
- globalised by successive European empires (16th and subsequent centuries).
(Source: https://europaregina.eu/creative/name/)
We prayed… or rather focused on the map at two levels – this was a past scenario, though currently pulling on this past power flow, and this was a projection, so simply rolled it up from the feet to the head, rolling it up in Spain.

The power outage – and it will be months before anything definitive is released as to the cause – almost certainly took place at the ‘neck’ of the ‘queen’, at the Pyrenees, the connecting point of the Iberian peninsula to Europe. (And connecting with the Brexit vision.)
Other aspects
In this recent period of time a major earthquake in Turkey with tectonic plates shifting. Turkey is the meeting point of East and West (and the context for much of the book of Revelation in terms of the seven churches).
Pope Francis has passed away. With regard to his appointment and the previous one I was very agitated and pulled heavily for an African pope and was disappointed that a conservative one was appointed – Pope Benedict. Pope Francis has come in and has to a significant level emptied the seat of power (marked by many staunch Catholic politicians refusing to give him the title of ‘pope’!). I have no agitation over this appointment at all – whoever comes in is coming to a seat where the power has gone.
These events mark a significant break from the past and we have entered a time of ‘silence’ waiting for what is to come. The power outage marks this period. We wait (not a passive word… in many languages wait and expect/actively hope are the same word).
Back to Europe
- A new unity
- A new alignment where the far east has to figure
- A new generation in the foundation (not standing on the foundation) as a new foundation is being laid
- This latter point is important – the language of ‘again’; books on my shelf eulogising over Europe’s ‘Christian’ past as being the guide to the future are (my opinion) seriously misguided.
- The path to the future is a new one… there is a movement from ‘church’ through ‘church in the city / region’ to a grain of wheat falling in the ground and transformation rising… rising as something comes down from above and something from below comes down.
Jerusalem, Rome and Far East
There is a NT movement that seems very clear. Jesus dies in Jerusalem and declares that no prophet can die outside Jerusalem. That death in Jerusalem has been understood (righty) for our sins – though not in a penal substitutionary transactional way; but that death carries so much more into the grave – kingship, hierarchy, all human / societal categorisational divides etc… That death was essential to take place in Jerusalem (the ‘religious’ centre) where religious power pulled on political imperial power in order to kill the incarnation of the divine. This releases Paul to go to the ends of the earth – to the oikoumene of the Imperial (and one-world government) of the then world. Constantine and Christendom is then where political power pulled on religious power to – as noted above – to stabilise (turn the world upside down… NOT) imperial rule. This is why the emphasis on ‘rolling up the Roman road’ from the early 2000s was so important.
Jerusalem to Rome – for me so clear in the NT. Founded on the Abrahamic vision of his seed being promised the world (hence I do not see a ‘promised land’ in Scripture, although it is present in some texts)… now we enter a new stage. Where is China / Far East within this? There equally was an Imperial (different order) in China in the time of the NT even though Jesus came at the ‘fullness of time’. Now we are arriving there. Uncharted territory. The Gospel cannot be altered but the application and expression of it will be.
Babylon’s peace
There is a major piece of instruction from Jeremiah to pray for the peace of Babylon (using the Hebrew word shalom). There is an old order being disrupted. Jerusalem is destined to have peace and reconciliation, but not through domination. In Jerusalem all that went into the grave… The new Jerusalem that is coming down that John saw was nothing other than the transformation of the whole world order. He did not see a temple with a city (the Temple occupied around 20% of the entire city of Jerusalem) but he saw a city without a temple. Babylon is in view, not Christendom. A challenge to all that has been the focus.
Big days are here!!!
Power gives way to presence
For some months I have been focused on a shift I see. The charismatic / pentecostal paradigm has been power with the ‘we will demonstrate the power of God to convince’. Of course that is present in Scripture, but I have been seeing a deeper call to live the presence of God. I am not reducing this to a style of worship where we ‘feel’ the presence, but something far beyond that. It is moving from activity ‘to’ someone / a situation and beyond something ‘for’ someone / a situation to being ‘with’ and ‘in’ the situation / circumstances. Then miracles happen for that is the incarnational presence. As I wrote above religious and political power combined to kill the incarnational presence of the divine.
There are new foci for us all. Realignements on the global scale are imminent, and deeply pressing at the personal level.
As one world order dies so another comes to life… I wholeheartedly believe we have a ‘vote’ on what comes. ‘Embracing tomorrow’ has always been the response of the prophetic and since Pentecost it is not simply the priesthood of all believers but the prophethood of all believers.