For decades, the United Kingdom has been seen as a tough place to reach people with the gospel. In recent months, though, evangelists are seeing a change – not only are people wanting to hear the good news, but Christians are also helping spread it. Many say the spiritual shift that’s happening is both real and remarkable.
A group called the King’s Army marched near Buckingham Palace recently, proclaiming Jesus is Lord over England. Founder Scott McNamara says they literally felt a change in the atmosphere.
“We heard this shock wave. It was like someone described it like a crack in the spirit. And after that, we did this march outside Buckingham Palace and a couple of other things, and it’s been incredible. Every day we’re getting people enlisted to be part of King’s Army, like 20 to 30, enlist per week, people reaching out from all over England saying, I want to be part of this movement,” McNamara said.
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After ministering in the streets of London for ten years, evangelist Stephen Johnson tells CBN News he’s never seen people more willing to hear the gospel.
“I started an outreach initiative in my home area of London, and the first time we did it, a couple of people just walked into the church afterwards, just wanting to talk. That doesn’t really happen in England. We’ve just seen this kind of thing happen again and again, and something has shifted in people’s hearts,” Johnson told us.
A major difference is that even the younger generation is responding.
“It’s quite normal to be mocked and ridiculed and heckled. Now we’re seeing young people actually come to us for conversations in the street and actually wanting serious conversations. And something has radically changed in people’s hearts,” Johnson said.
Johnson sees people searching for answers to the world’s problems, and what used to be hard is now easy.
“If you can turn up on the streets with a bunch of flyers, stop someone and say, ‘What do you know about Jesus? Or are you interested in spiritual things?’ Just start a conversation. It is not difficult. And for England of all places, that’s a remarkable shift,” Johnson said.
McNamara, who pioneered a ministry called Jesus at the Door in 2014 to help Christians share the gospel, says the Lord recently gave him a global mandate.
“He said I’m raising up an army for the end times, call it The King’s Army. I’m going to push back darkness in these end times. So, the vision for King’s Army is really to establish these corps, these regiments in pockets all around the world to start fires all around the world where Christians can come and be trained and together shoulder to shoulder, they can raise the standard and push back the darkness,” McNamara said.
He believes revival will happen.
“When the church wakes up, revival comes, and then there will be another, a great third awakening. So this Great Commission, this mission that we’ve been given to go and take back what the devil’s stolen, has been given to the church. And the church is waking up to this, and it’s beautiful to see,” McNamara said.