Category: Personal Perspectives

A newsletter to charismatics!

Posted on
by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

Some of you might have already received this by email. If so ignore. For some of you this might be of no interest… ignore! For others maybe adds to your own thoughts?

I have a few posts to complete and also to give a response to our time in Sicily. I will (maybe spelt ‘hope’?) to complete what I started on Jew, Israel, Gentile (with a slant on eschatology) and my thoughts on the Pauline gospel, but given the heat that is on some recent exposures on prophecy within charismatic circles I thought I should in this interlude comment on that first.

Well this is not really to charismatics, but a few responses to some of what is unfolding.

While away in Sicily I have sought to follow the scandals / exposures in the past weeks that Mike Winger has documented. I have not watched all the hours (and hours and hours) of videos but I have seen enough and experienced enough disappointment. Of course I have my take on it as many of you do, and wanted to give my response here – particularly to those of you who want to align yourself with the ‘charismatic’.

For those not in the know, in short, the scandals are focused on a number of individuals who have data-mined social media so that they can then present details (names, addresses, specific contexts) as words of knowledge… a kind of ‘Is there a Martin Scott present who lives in Oliva, does Isla de Sicilia mean anything to you?’ blah, blah. Impressive and spectacular. (Interestingly the prophetic that follows is often at a much lower ‘level’ of revelation or simply continues with an affirmation of what was presented on Facebook etc.!) 

A little personal history

There are three personal experiences that will also shape where I am coming from / where I am headed.

1) Not knowing anything about what was to come I wrote to someone (first in 2021) whose feet have been held to the fire in these past days that a major test was coming and that he would need the spirit of wisdom when it hit. I had a further 3 pieces of communication with him over the following years.

Then around 2 years ago I had two dreams that seem very relevant:

2) The first dream I was present in a discussion among European believers who were discussing as to what protocols should be foundational for a healthy prophetic to rise in the coming context and season. Into that dream a USA prophetic person (who passed away some years back but was one of the best known names from his era) materialised as a 40 year old. He was intently focused on discovering what we would come up with and his face showed clearly that he knew now that what they had put in place in their era was now proving to be sadly defective.

3) The second dream was of one of the best known and ‘stable’ prophets of today holding the platform in a large auditorium. He acknowledged my presence and said ‘we need to hear from Martin later’… however he filled the whole time and when he ran out of any meaningful content he jumped off the stage and simply began to dance around and shadow box! I said to Gayle ‘there is nothing for us here, let’s leave’. As we left by a side door I realised there was another back room and so I said ‘let’s go in here and see what is taking place.’ We did this and inside was someone dedicated to raising the next generation of prophetic voices. He had clearly been (apologies and I do not want to be crude) stimulating himself and now (fully clothed) he was demonstrating how significant his male package was – this being a point of pride. I said to Gayle – we are out of here and so we left that whole scene: the best of the current was shadow boxing and the next generation was being developed in the setting of male pride and performance.

After those dreams speak into the public space with the exposures of the abuse of the prophetic, and sadly with a comment – ‘we all do this’. I am grateful that that is not totally true (‘all’) but the data-mining and other abuses seems more widespread than just with a few.

The discrediting of the prophetic is clear as a result.

Some 6 months back I said to Gayle the prophetic is about to be shaken but once that is through the same will happen to the current healing move. That is just ahead of us.
 


So what now charismatics? (And I write as one.)

1) The spectacular – who to impress?

I had a call with David Shadbolt a few weeks back who brought up Philip’s visit to Samaria and in that village was Simon who with his ‘magic’ had deeply impressed / mesmerised the people.

The platform (problematic in itself) has facilitated the impressive. Truth is I do not need someone to give me my name nor my address but do need help to better align my character to fulfil a purpose for others while I am on this planet.

The spectacular lifts the so-called ‘messenger’ up. That is always the vision of all imperially-driven constructs and the total opposite of any Pauline vision for gifts and calling. We have to see the current exposure as a wake up call to being sadly unaligned in direction.

There are remarkable words of knowledge (‘you have had 5 husbands and the one you are with you are not married to’). A friend of mine who passed away in 2001 I often witnessed him bring revelation that even that person’s closest friend did not know – his gift and character impacted me deeply. He once turned up late… reason? ‘Sorry mate, I had to pull over, I was having such an acute panic attack’. He brought freedom to many and yet…. Maybe he should have been through the personal trauma by that stage… maybe… but his weakness was his strength. He was human with flaws. Humanity with flaws is closer to God’s image than the spectacular on a platform.

2) Healing – a new context

I have read through many of the stories of the ‘healing revival’ of 1948-58 where many of those involved came from backgrounds of poverty (and through the difficulties of the 1930s). Seeking God  for power (and significance?) they sought to manifest healing power. Two flaws: power does not heal a heart… love does. I remember meeting one (from a slightly later era) healing evangelist who held crusades with 100s of thousands globally. He came from an orphaned background, but was by the time I met him incredibly well known and it so happened that for around 10 minutes only he and I were in the same room. It was like talking to boy who was 12 years old. Only a conviction of love brings healing, being valued because of reputation does not heal.

Power – we will demonstrate God’s power, thus impressing people about God… (and maybe about us?). Second problem – God is not impressive!!! Insecurity needs to impress… God is not insecure!

We do not have a responsibility to show the world the power of God. There is a shift from power to PRESENCE. Jesus first chose 12 to be WITH him and then he commissioned them. He was known as ‘Emmanuel’, God WITH us. To be with Jesus is not simply to go away on a retreat, it is to be where he is.

There are three helpful prepositions – TO, FOR, and WITH. We can do something TO people – colonialism; we can do something FOR people – better and sometimes a necessary step… but WITH is the God-way.

There is a healing wave to come, but it first requires that we move to be WITH those who are marginalised. It is not about moving into the top 3% and then having power to change what is around… but being with. To be with is to listen. God’s bias is to the margins. I, male, have to LISTEN to those of a different gender / those who express gender / sexual orientation differently to me if I am to disrobe my ungodly status.

There is a total ‘disrobing’ of status. Jesus ‘got up from supper, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself’. This is what lies ahead. Only then will we have presence. Presence is not a style of worship, but a discovery that there is nothing more significant than being simply a ‘person in Christ’ as Paul described himself.

In summary

The heat is rightly on now. Change is being called for. A loss of power is required; power that comes through social status or pulled on through insecurity. Significance is to be found in being insignificant; anointed in being disrobed.

And a final note as a convinced charismatic. I am aware of thousands who in the past decades have received words of prophecy concerning their lives. They received them (as I did) in the context of ‘four walls’ and the platform. Those words are not dead, but the fulfilment is in a different context. The platform as we have had it is problematic; the four walls are deeply restrictive… The fulfilments are waiting to be connected with… the path to the place of fulfilment is the preposition ‘with’.

Here’s to a new phase.

SHARE ON:
Post PermaLink

Coming to an end… or a beginning?

Posted on
by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

Our time in Sicily is coming to an end – another 10 days or so to go. When it is over I will try to put something of a summary in here – summarising 5 months, numerous locations, 20+ different beds, response to a few thousand years of history? An inadequate summary, but I will try.

It is hard to say what underlines why we came here but I guess it has something to do with one from the tribe of Benjamin called Saul of Tarsus. I consider him a bit of a friend – pure fantasy on my part and revealing that I think it is easier to relate to someone who won’t kick me up the proverbials than someone alive in my era! But enough of exposing any inadequacies I have, moving on…

Life seems so accidental at one level – who would I have been, what would I have done if I had been born in another era, another culture? And yet if we walk humbly (by that I mean accepting our stupidity) it does seem the Lord guides (when I do summarise Sicily I hope I make that clear as to the journey here). 2001 Hanover and the launch of ‘Target Europe’, which marked some great partnerships and some clear divides, I was asked to address a session. I took as my theme Isaac re-opening the wells of his father Abraham so my theme was to ‘re-dig the wells of revival’. At the end of the session I was met by a handful of Spanish believers who said that there was not the same history in Spain as I had referenced (Wales, Hebrides, Wesleyan etc.) so they asked what were they to do. If not 100% accurate I can substantially remember my response – a response that was not premeditated and one I did not fully understand:

Tell me, what nation on the planet can claim, on the basis of biblical authority, that there are first century unanswered apostolic prayers in the land. You do not need a revival history in Spain, go dig out those prayers.

I left thinking what on earth does that mean but soon concluded that Paul prayed for Spain. He was not looking for a beach holiday, nor a villa with a pool, but for the gospel to finally get to the end of his world – the western edge of the Roman Empire. Prayers for the land were sown deep into the ground. (I don’t think Paul ever got here in spite of the legend that he made it after his imprisonment in Rome, but there are first century apostolic prayers in the land – literally in the land.)

The Pauline Gospel. Bigger, much bigger, than the ‘gospel’ that I grew up on, the one defended as the ‘evangelical gospel’. (I first studied theology at under-graduate level in the 70s – an era when evangelical theology was defensive and still very narrow in scope.)

In the last 40 years or so there have been many shifts in Pauline theology – and I am way from being up to speed. Some still defend the ‘old perspective’, there is the ‘new perspective’ (such as NT Wright, Jimmy Dunn, and pre-them EP Sanders), ‘Paul in Judaism’, ‘Apocalyptic Paul’ and variations of the above and also a host of others. I am deeply impacted by the new perspective and see the NT context as the Imperial world. A well known inscription from 9BC shows the common language from that Imperial world to the world of the New Testament:

It seemed good to the Greeks of Asia, in the opinion of the high priest Apollonius of Menophilus Azanitus: “Since Providence, which has ordered all things and is deeply interested in our life, has set in most perfect order by giving us Augustus, whom she filled with virtue that he might benefit humankind, sending him as a savior, both for us and for our descendants, that he might end war and arrange all things, and since he, Caesar, by his appearance (excelled even our anticipations), surpassing all previous benefactors, and not even leaving to posterity any hope of surpassing what he has done, and since the birthday of the god Augustus was the beginning of the good tidings [εὐαγγέλιον] for the world that came by reason of him,” which Asia resolved in Smyrna.

Saviour, gospel… ‘secular’ words, and we can extend that with other terms used such as ‘lord’, ‘kings of kings’, ‘prince of peace’… Such a crossover of terms alerts us that the good news of Jesus is not primarily about a private response of faith that was to be demonstrated in religious activity. It was deeply ‘political’ and about an alignment that affected the whole of life. The concept that ‘Jesus is Lord’ and ‘declared to be the Son of God by the resurrection’ had (has) profound implications for our world.

The entrance of Jesus – born of a woman, born under the law – as a human and as a Jew was central to Paul as well as the Gospels, with the Gospels recording the ministry of Jesus within the context of an oppressed land; Paul takes all that was presented there and works it out within the context of that oppressive imperial power. This has led some to say he is the founder of ‘Christianity’ and for some the one who distorted the message. My take is he faithfully applied the message.

Anyway I will begin to post inadequately on Paul over the coming days, concerning the few insights I have into the ‘Pauline Gospel’. But back to Hanover and beyond.

The core focus that took Gayle and I to Spain was to dig into the land to play a part in the re-digging of the Pauline gospel. Maybe it has an impact on Spain, but it certainly has brought about shifts in us. Fast forward and in May 2025 we responded to a very generous invitation from two of our heroes and friends (Adrian and Pauline Hawkes) to come to Malta. Aware that Paul was shipwrecked there we thought maybe there will be some stimulus for us regarding Paul. (There is a possibility the shipwreck was not there, though the term used of the people was βάρβαροι – not a term likely to be used of some of the alternative suggested islands… so probably Malta.) We read Acts 28 on numerous occasions and then saw that from Malta he went to Syracuse (Sicily):

We put in at Syracuse and stayed there for three days (Acts 28:12).

We literally live on ‘Island of Sicily street’ in Oliva and have often wondered if there was anything beyond it simply being an address… And, short story long, we left Malta with a conviction that within weeks was firmed up that we should head to Sicily. Two history books later and in November 2025 we left in a van we have always seen as transportation for Europe.

Many aspects have come together for us and we have been convinced that there will be a ‘before’ and an ‘after’ related to our time here.

In short it has brought us to the conviction that the biggest element in our world today is the ending of all abusive uses of power. Could it be possible? Well that takes me back to what I will be posting on – the Pauline gospel.

SHARE ON:
Post PermaLink

Armageddon? Not!!

Posted on
by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

Something along the following lines is being quoted by a number of sources:

A combat-unit commander told non-commissioned officers at a briefing Monday that the Iran war is part of God’s plan and that Pres. Donald Trump was “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth,” according to a complaint by a non-commissioned officer. From Saturday morning through Monday night, more than 110 similar complaints about commanders in every branch of the military had been logged by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF). The complaints came from more than 40 different units spread across at least 30 military installations, the MRFF told me Monday night (https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a70590863/jesus-trump-military-iran-war/).

So here we go… again! The news interpreting the Bible… and in the course of it the Bible takes a hammering. Putting my cards on the table: Armageddon does not exist – there is no such place. There is no such mountain and to make it into the ‘plains of Megiddo’ rather stretches biblical interpretation, and then where does it appear: in the Apocalypse which uses (wait for it) apocalyptic language!

Worse though is ‘anointed by Jesus… to cause Armageddon’. As if. And check out Islamic eschatology – Jesus is coming back, Armageddon-type warfare, but Jesus at the head of the Islamic forces. All of it madness.

Eschatology; Israel and the need for more land to be what was promised. What if (as I believe) there is almost nothing predicted about the future… that the land promises are radically re-shaped in the New Testament… that Revelation is the critique of all time concerning Imperial power that is shown to be in total contrast to the kenotic activity of heaven… what then should we do? What then should we look to consider is anointed of God? What if Scripture encourages any consideration of ‘end-times’ to be responded to with a response of dedication to commitment to first principles of ‘let your kingdom come’?

I hope we can move away from the madness.

SHARE ON:
Post PermaLink

The power outage

Posted on
by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

This observation is not too profound but it does appear everywhere we look the abuse of power is being hit head on. From the (former) grand old duke of York (the Epstein files will simply not go away) to great swathes of the prophetic movement / streams. More has to come and we still have some serious dictators who have to come in line or be removed.

I have – along with many others – watched the YouTube exposees of some of the prophetic abuses and downright fabrications with horror. Back in 2021 I warned that this was coming and about 18 months ago said to Gayle that once that has been ruthlessly purged that there will come a wave that will confront the healing movement (not saying my terms are correct with the use of ‘movement’).

What is being exposed at the core is that of the abuse of power positions. Years after the ‘interaction’ between Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky was she able to say that it was abuse – abuse primarily because of the imbalance of power position. The addiction to power and the belief that things change by the exercise of power has to be broken. The prophetic abuses have to be sorted and I recall a dream I had of a European gathering that was discussing ‘prophetic protocols’ for the next phase, into which a recognised USA prophet materialised (he has passed away a few years back) as a 40 year old; he was present representing a former move but also realising that what was laid down (allowed?) as protocols in that time had led them to where it had become corrupted. I think the bottom line issue is that of power position. Why quickly restore those who have been abusive – their gift is needed seems to be the motivation. We cannot afford to go that way.

The three temptations of Jesus still stand: economy (turn the stones into bread), be hailed and honoured as from God (throw yourself down from the Temple) and use a system to change the entire world (I will give you the kingdoms = Christendom). The show of ‘the prophetic’ with names and addresses shows so clearly that such people are of God, the system as embodied in the ‘Seven mountains of influence’ and with more than sufficient dosh to get it all out is being challenged. It has to be.

Deeper than laying a new foundation (‘prophetic protocols’) is the walking away and renouncing of power and power positions. ‘Being in the form of God (not in spite of being in the form of God) Jesus laid aside his power position…’ And ‘let this mind be in you’ was the exhortation.

A year ago we rolled up the ‘queen of Europe’ from the head to the feet. Within hours came the power outage in Spain, Portugal and spilling over into France and Morroco. Power outages occur. Also signs occur as signs point us to what is taking place and they draw to themselves what they are indicating. Power outage is here.

The ‘power’ issue faces us all. It is irrelevant whether we are at the so-called ‘top’ or not. Power will not change the world – hence the forever debates that eventually are not resolved of ‘a God of love with unlimited power’ and suffering. Start with that understanding and the only way to resolve it is ‘mystery’. For some time I have been saying it is ‘presence’ that we have to manifest. Not power over, but presence with. And you shall call his name ‘Emmanuel’, meaning ‘God with us’ (beginning of Matthew’s Gospel) with the final promise in Matthew’s Gospel that Jesus will be with us to the end of the age.

Presence with.

Buckle yourself in – particularly us charismatics – the ride is getting bumpy. Don’t give up on what you know… don’t get obsessed with what is out there; pay attention to what is within.

Finally on the current abuse of power in the big world… I am praying that the feeding from the next generation will not be possible. That is manifest in such issues as the economic structures of the world and the lack of care for environmental issues with the attitude it will be OK for us in our generation. A long post might be needed but I simply sow it here – the current dictators (as always) are feeding off the next generation – we need to see that supply broken – and this perpetuates their existence. Just a thought… and yes I will get to posting on Sicily ere long!

SHARE ON:
Post PermaLink

Back to Catania

Posted on
by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

It is not so easy to give a report that gives an accurate sense of our continued time in Sicily, but here I will try and give something that might create some kind of reflection. First a map to orientate…

The outer triangle is marking the three promonentories that have long been recognised. We have visited two – the first being in Marsala and that one we have been to on numerous occasions. It also marks where Garibaldi entered Sicily to ‘conquer’ and first submit it to the king of Sardinia (1860) and with the northern states formed Italy. The second point in the south east we have now been to twice and think that is probably enough. The lines I have drawn are simply for my own clarity but they cross at the middle of the island in Enna, the centre and the meeting point for the way the Arabic epoch had divided the island. We are currently in Catania but have been for some days prior in Siracusa (where Paul landed) and in Agrigento (East and West coasts).

How do we decide where we go? Well of course simple… we wake up in the morning, an angel has breakfast with us and gives us a detailed set of instructions. Easy! Or maybe it is a little different to that!!! OK maybe delete that part about the breakfast companion. We do have an overall shape of seeking to understand the history, meaning that as we do we discover ‘who’ Sicily is (I put ‘who’ in quotes as that is not a normal way of thinking of geography, but I do think very biblical – often ‘land’ or ‘cities’ are addressed in the same way as people are addressed). This takes us then into what should we do (as per a person) to enable any wounds, repeating patterns to be addressed so that there can be a better future (and we would hold that if a measure of ‘healing’ can occur that there is a greater openness to participating in the redemptive flow of salvation (Jn. 10:40-42 in contrast to the preceding 3 chapters and Acts 17:26, 27 – kairos and boundaries).

As one walks and prays in this way aspects seem to become clear. The obvious to begin with such as the intense history of colonisation right the way through to the more recent one of the unification of Italy; then the area that has to be dug into with the history of the two women martyrs (Saint Lucy in Siracusa and Saint Agatha in Catania). The parallel stories of those two women are where we are currently focused (late 200s – early 300s). We are on the second time in those cities. The first time in Siracusa was seeking sight and I suggested we might have to be visiting 10 times to get underneath the covering layers that seek to hide / distort the reality. Well I think we have probably been in the city on 8 occasions and now have been able to come to Catania. We came (not knowing this) on the final day of the 8 day long festival to Santa Agatha. Timing was good but the inevitable heaviness was tangible.

The two stories are rooted in abuse (Agatha to be punished for not being willing to compromise her faith and marry a pagan was put in a brothel to encourage her to change her mind). Push back further and of course this is the myth of Europe with Zeus and the princess in Crete. Those old myths are exactly that, but they are also the ancient attempts to explain the reality around them and in the telling of the story shape the future. So this is the layer we are in now. A few more days in Catania then who knows – but I guess we will need that breakfast again! Or something else will open – certainly we are now looking at how does the children fit in to this. There (as per other places) is a history of child sacrifice on the West coast with the Phoenician / Carthaginian history – so maybe that will call? The ‘children’ of course represent the next generation (represent? = are) and this digs deep into areas of economy where I maintain that to – among other things – finance war and perpetuate divides the future is sacrificed in order to see blessing today (hence money as fiat). So maybe we won’t get a breakfast with an angel (as if!!) but we will not be without direction.

Back to the map… the final point at the north awaits and that is where one of the major crusades took was shaped from. That certainly is where Christendom (and hence the current intense debates in Europe are) had a manifestation. So probably a final stop off. In other words (but it would be a shorter blog) Gayle and I have breakfast together (and with anyone who has joined us) but little by little it makes sense where to travel that day. As yet there is nothing beyond Catania that we have – and why should we? Tomorrow is another day and we only need to know tomorrow what we should do then.

From Wikipedia:

According to the 13th-century Golden Legend (III.15) by Jacobus de Voragine, 15-year-old Agatha, from a rich and noble family, made a vow of virginity for Christ’s sake and rejected the amorous advances of the Roman prefect Quintianus, who thought he could force her to turn away from her vow and marry him. His persistent proposals were consistently spurned by Agatha. This was during the persecutions of Decius, so Quintianus, knowing she was a Christian, reported her to the authorities. Quintianus himself was governor of the district.
Quintianus expected Agatha to give in to his demands when faced with torture and possible death, but Agatha simply reaffirmed her belief in God by praying: “Jesus Christ, Lord of all, you see my heart, you know my desires. Possess all that I am. I am your sheep: make me worthy to overcome the devil.” To force her to change her mind, Quintianus sent Agatha to Aphrodisia, the keeper of a brothel, and had her imprisoned there; however, the punishment failed, with Agatha remaining a Christian.

SHARE ON:
Post PermaLink

What are we to think

Posted on
by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

I am currently reading a whole bunch of chapters about Solomon, ever so wise, Mr. Temple builder etc. Now in what I write he is a whole lot wiser than me… however, how are we meant to read some of the stuff? How many wives? And how many palaces? And how many foreign gods? And how many…? Silver was a nothing and everywhere gold; along comes the Q of Sheba who is well impressed… and on we go. Some very smart proverbs, but leaves me thinking – and that seems to be the thing with so much of Scripture that we just can’t figure out. Gets you thinking – cos it ain’t really about Solomon but about me aligning to what I believe. I used to say to people – listen to me and you will discover what I think (or what I hope you think) I believe. Come stay with me, go ask my spouse, even neighbours – then you will discover what I really believe. True doctrine seems far more to do with how I live than how I can string a few Scriptures together. People like Paul said – ‘imitate me as I imitate Christ’. OOOFFFF. He also suggested that we simply give a couple of considerations concerning anyone entering leadership – how is that thing called family working out and go ask a few neighbours (specifically those who don’t have faith) and get their opinion. Too practical all of that! ‘Jesus began to do and to teach’. We like to teach and tell people what to do – could it be we have got it the wrong way round? Never, I hear myself say…

Anyway back to the aforementioned king. The era of success has arrived; started by David then brought to another level with Solomon. The borders are at the largest; the army at the strongest; the order… OK wait a minute. The order – all things flowing to the centre to maintain the centre. Maybe now a question just enters. Surely Solomon has not organised things to rival that place the earlier generations escaped from – that place known as Egypt with a king known as Pharoah? And the next king of the northern tribes, Jeroboam, comes up out of… Egypt… erecting 2 golden calves… Yes it is the rebellious northern tribes that did not stay loyal to the house of David, but maybe we are to think maybe the prosperous days of Solomon were not so healthy after all.

Success. We have growth, we have influence; everything is testifying to ‘we have never seen anything like this’. Good or bad?

Small is no better than big; failure certainly no better than success!!! But the successful centre – big or small is probably more the issue. Scaling up nearly always ends up confusing us – we have done something amazing; now God can take a nap we have this. Scaling out – that is something different. Where is the centre? Bit like asking post the last Supper as to where Jesus is? Cos if each person ‘eats’ and ‘drinks’ him he is wherever the eaters and the drinkers are. It seems to make sense of Jesus botanical answer to the Greeks who wished to meet him (Jn. 12:20-26). His reply of ‘unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies…’ Strange request for an interview. Want to visit the centre? Advice… wait a while cos you don’t need a Jewish Jesus, you need a Greek one – so hang on till there are many Jesus-es (yes I know they will be inadequate and you would really like to see the proper one, but…)

Time to wrap this wandering blah blah up. Success and growth and recognition – well what a set of dangers arise. We move from being dependent on God to we pretty much got this. I advocated a whole number of years ago that a corporate exorcism would not go amiss if done once a year. To take a stand and to say to whatever we need to: ‘I am / we are not here for your success. We will not serve you, nor defend you. We will declare you and any resources you have are here to serve God’s kingdom, and that kingdom will not exalt any one person… so any spirit seeking to attach to us we renounce…’ and so on.

I’d rather not go the way of Solomon. And I kinda think that there is a squeeze on right now, for without the squeeze we have such a tendency to think we have really done something quite amazing.

SHARE ON:
Post PermaLink

Apocalypse… and hope

Posted on
by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

I wrote a post ‘Time for an update’ and Anne commented on the post. I was very struck by the comment so I asked if I could publish it here with her permission. Permission granted!

Anne commented:

I am just finishing a book titled: Apocalypse, How catastrophe transformed our world and can forge new futures, by Lizzie Wade. No not a theological perspective but an anthropological one. She examines different societies and civilizations in the past and how they survived and were changed by their own apocalypses. From climate change along the north coast of Peru to the plague in Europe. And lots of other places. She ended up writing this during the Covid pandemic, our most recent global apocalypse.

A few of her conclusions:

Apocalypses have always revealed and exploited societies’ weak points, from an unsustainable relationship with a changing environment to an overly rigid and oppressive social hierarchy. Because of that, apocalypses are also the best chance our societies have for change. . . . apocalypse can reveal the failures of old systems and inspire the creation of new ones.

We can harness the energy and potential of apocalypse to create a new world. But first we have to accept that the apocalypse, with all of its horrors, is here to stay. Only then can we see its opportunities. . . ‘

Embracing apocalypse doesn’t mean resigning ourselves to the worst-case scenario, or giving up on the idea of progress. It means believing that destruction can be a gateway to that progress, societies can and should change, and endings are also always beginnings. It means recognizing that just because we’re used to something doesn’t make it right. It means prioritizing values and ways of life that allow us to adapt and change rather than shoring up brittle social structures that crumble at the first hint of challenge or pressure. It means looking forward with clear eyes rather than scrambling backward toward an illusion of safety that has already disappeared or perhaps never really existed. It means mourning what we’ve lost while also imagining all the things we could create next. It means choosing hope, not instead of fear but alongside of it.

People have prayed the Kingdom come for millennia. Perhaps this is the moment. Not to look back and try to resurrect a structure that was ungodly in the first place – Christendom – but to look forward to connection back to community and to the land (and yes, that involves it’s history) as we face the challenges and opportunities ahead of us.

And to quote the Canadian Prime Minister in his recent comments at Davos: ‘Nostalgia is not a strategy’. It’s time to move on from what is over and find/create our new homes.

Rather than wish I (Martin) had such wisdom I am eager to learn… nostalgia is not a strategy and again I am reminded by Martin Luther’s reply to what he would do if he knew the world was ending tomorrow. He replied ‘I would plant an apple tree’. A sign of the future. The world as we have known it is ending; it will just take a little while before the powers acknowledge it. Whether the parousia takes place ‘soon’ (those words uttered some 2000 years ago) or not, we are called to sow in the light of the future. The soil has changed, the bag from which we draw the seed is different but the seed to be sown remains. Hope is within the seed and nostalgia certainly is not.

SHARE ON:
Post PermaLink

Time for an update

Posted on
by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

Been forever (Jan 20th) since I posted on Sicily. Gayle has been in Malaysia (back on Tuesday) and I have survived, for that I give myself a pat on the back. As from the previous posts I have also been reading and writing about ‘Israel’ and ‘Jew’. Got a way to go on that but some things are coming clear to me. The two terms are not interchangeable – so much quickly becomes evident when looking at where the two terms are used and where they are not – in Josephus, Philo, Paul and Scripture. Anyway…

Sicily has had a tie of being battered. Initial estimates of the damage was around 750,000€ but that quickly rose to 1bn and now the suggestion is it will be closer to 2bn€ of damage. The East coast was hit hardest but many will have seen on the news the landslide in Niscemi – about 50 miles / 80 kms from where I am currently based. The weather was intensified as Sicily was the centre of the coming together of three different fronts – one from the West, one from the East and one from Africa. There is ‘weather weather’, ‘demonic weather’, and at times something to be read from the weather – the land speaks, as also does the seas. There is some element of creation speaking in the storm that has been so violent. (I have a sneaky desire that sometime into March that Mt. Etna speaks – a sign of fire… spectacular but without damage. Let’s see!)

Over these past 10 days I have sought to hold here at the level Gayle left things, she has been far east with some wonderful doors opening. (The wonderful aspect of seeking to be a Jesus’ follower has nothing to do with success but is marked by ‘where did they come from, where did they go’ (Jn. 3 illustration used of those who are born of the Spirit) is that we are all so ordinary but 2 coins ignorantly put in a treasury can change so much!)

Walking there is stuff to see. Today two street names. Of course they can be innocent but they can open one’s eyes to what part of the history is being / has been remembered. The first Civil War 1921. And if one searches google maps it is not even on there. 1921 – a time of deep unrest in Italy and the year of the formation of the Communist party and the major entry of the Fascist party into parliament, paving the away for Mussolini in 1922 to take over. The second street was December 1968 – the aftermath of one of the most significant earthquakes to hit Sicily with towns like Gibellina, Salaparuta, Montevago, and Poggioreale destroyed, and causing over 300 deaths, injuring 1,000+, and leaving around 100,000 homeless.

Avola – been a good place to kick back and be quiet, but oh my a tough place for the likes of me. So ordered and neat. It is what lies behind the order and the call for compliance. I posted a map of the internal ‘hexagon’ a few days ago… it is wrong to forget the past and probably understandable to have memorials erected, but along that main road through the middle of the hexagon down to the sea… well Madonna and child by the sea looking straight up and then walk that road and one will encounter monument after monument that has been erected to those who have ‘fallen’, ending with (the expected) obelisk at the end. Maybe some 2kms away from Mary and baby Jesus.

I have learnt something (maybe the first thing I have learned – how do you spell learnt / learned???) that with history that runs so deep what on earth is appropriate to focus on. (That was a bad sentence not sure myself if it was a question or a statement, whatever…) Whatever stops a moving forward and holds something in place needs to be addressed (whether at a personal, city, corporate or global level). The issue we (at all the above mentioned levels) all have a past -what becomes relevant is whatever blocks the entry to the future.

It could be easy to get bogged down here but I sense these days are about sight. Yes walk the streets and ‘see’, take note of street name even… but I think it is about sight for the next phase. Gayle returns Tuesday and we will then move, find a place to settle, but be mobile. In a few days after Gayle comes here we will be joined by 3 very smart women who will be so important to close phase 1, and move through phase 2 to open the way for phase 3. (Sounds like I know what I am talking about; I hear Paul say ‘don’t leave a falsehood’ so to make it clear all the above is vague, with a capital ‘V’.)

I hope to take the sight from here into the next weeks. There is a way forward from earthquakes, even from major landslides and devastation, but it should not be into the nice orderedness of conformity. Conformity offers safety. Something we run to when we feel insecure. So with the help of good feminine energy (and there is no gender in God but if there was the references to the Spirit (ruach; rechem = womb and thus the Incarnation involves the womb of the Holy Spirit and the womb of a wiling young woman)) it will be time to close down orderedness (epitomised in Christendom) and call for the release of the wild – hence a little sneaky desire for Etna to speak after those weeks.

The above might be a bit vague – and we will forever only see in part. Always enough to provoke us to pray and to seek to align with heaven… and earth.

Separate to the above and I might post on this separately at some point. Around 3-4 years ago I was praying and had in my vision a map of the world. It looked standard the same as one could buy. There are 3 major land masses on the bottom side of a map – South America, Africa and India. In one instant South America relocated underneath Europe; Africa under China – that surprised me as it happened simultaneously. But India did not move. India is the dark horse of this next era (through to 2040). An old world order is not going back – Mark Carney spoke of a rupture. The importance of the ekklesia is in focus. It is a governmental word but NOT to be understood as governing over (as per seven mountains of influence) but taking responsibility for a shape to be held so that what is healthy can grow up within it. It is not about discerning where the next trade deal can be done… they might give us signs but I am convinced we are to look for a new economy and Scripture is full of it. No need to fear ‘not allowed to buy and sell’ as that is part of an economy that is collapsing… We bumble along in Sicily, the centre of ‘middle earth’ hoping we will cluelessly contribute to the future, and staying here in Avola is underlining for me that we have to step away from being locked in what has been.

SHARE ON:
Post PermaLink

Ten weeks and a bit more

Posted on
by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

It has been a little while since I have posted about our small adventure in Sicily. We are now into our 11th week here – probably about half way through. Today is the second day of a storm centred on the island; yesterday Gayle left for Malaysia with an overnight in Rome. Of course objectively Gayle is not at a Pauline level of shifting the powers but subjectively of course she is! Paul left Sicily to get to Rome and we held on to that with regard to her getting on that first stage of her journey and that she would not be storm-bound. She heads east – to the ‘far east’.

In previous posts (to the point of boredom?) I have shared my take on the ekklesiastical (yes my spelling) task. The gospel of the kingdom to the nations… or ‘the Pauline gospel to the ends of the earth’. Paul cheekingly claimed the gospel had gone throughout the entire world, knowing full-well it was impacting the entire world of the Roman empire, but the far east? I think the world-view those early Christians had was of ‘once this is completed everything follows’. Once Jerusalem was ‘split’ (Zech. 4) everything else could follow… once Rome had been ‘split’ (the apostolic task, embodied particularly in Paul) the rest can follow… and here we are at a wonderful time in history. (By split I intend to mean separated from the previous dependency and set apart to the revelation that is from heaven.) Western empires (drawing on Rome) are crumbling, the east is rising and it is time for the gospel to go eastward. And absolutely the gospel has been there in great abundance already, and at numerous levels a purer gospel, and yet…

Christendom has to go. Sicily sits in the old maps as the world under the domination of Christendom, so I do consider that if something can shift here there is a knock on effect. And for all of us anxious about the future we are told to cast our anxiety on ‘him’. For all of us who trust in the world economic system to save us we will need to shift our trust asap. For there is no ultimate shift without there being an economic jolt within cities / empires in Scripture.

Gone a bit off-track.

While Gayle has gone I have some walking to do, some sight to ask for; and predominantly have to seek to keep the western gate shut to Christendom’s appeal. Then between Gayle and I we have to allow the territory to expand, for her to sow seed where she goes that is not the seed of western imperialism. Simple task, Gayle!

Here I have time to reflect. We have considered that our time in Sicily will be marked by three phases. An angel came in a dream with a book (four corners to a book) supported at three of its ‘corners’. We discover the island is a triangle marked in history with three capes. Now we are coming to the end of the first phase – much deeper than I can grasp but essentially the issue of colonialism in the history, right through to the unification of Italy through Garibaldi (who physically began his conquest from one of three capes – the north west in Marsala). In a dream ‘he’ came saying ‘what I have done cannot be undone’. I take that two ways – a challenge and also we don’t have to ‘undo’ what has been done but to cleanse what was done. He conquered Sicily and a follow on was / has been the impoverishment of the island. From being wealthier than the northern states it became poverty-racked within a few short years following unification.

Garibaldi conquered Sicily for the king of Sardinia (Vittorio Emanuele) who once Sicily was added became the first king of Sicily. Garibaldi did this in spite of being a republican. Here in Avola (and this is repeated in other Sicilian cities – not sure about Italy) the street honouring the then king and the street named after Garibaldi cross – here it is very marked as they cross right in the mid-point of the hexagon that marks the centre of the city.

[The screenshot from blessed google shows the hexagon. The word ‘Avola’ is on the centre and holds the main square… the road from left to right passing through that square is Corso Vittorio Emanuele and the road from top to bottom crossing that square is Corso Garibaldi. This kind of imagery on land / within locations is not uncommon and helps us to have open eyes to see how history affects geography, and how history within geography shapes spiritual powers.]

I stay here in Avola while Gayle is gone and also a few days with her when she returns. Then (hopefully more than a ‘fantasy’) we will move into the second phase. It will include a re-visit to the south easterly point, a re-visit to Agrigento – a place that seems to be a pivotal point between past and future, and a revisit to Sracusa – where Paul spent three days and the Greek tyrant Dionysius ruled from, a major despot in history. That initial second phase I am sure will surprise us as to what unfolds… then toward the end of that time we will base ourselves close to Mount Etna. It would be sweet if it breathes fire as we anticipate that – but not too close!

SHARE ON:
Post PermaLink

An update

Posted on
by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

Been a while since I wrote about what we are up to in Sicily. I have page of notes that come close to boring me so not about to blah on for ever. I did write a newsletter today – if you don’t receive it then here is a link:
https://mailchi.mp/543da0e94eaf/january-2026-update
It will hopefully give a feel to date. We continue in Avola for this month.

SHARE ON:
Post PermaLink
Perspectives