This post is going to be about Anglican matters, and what I see as at least the partial fulfillment of a prophecy given 9 years ago.

Back in June 2004, I received this word:

Ichabod

I saw a mid sized tree (or possibly a large bush) with only bare brown branches. The tree was dead, and represented to me the apostate church.  Springing from the same ground, a little to one side, was a strong shoot, green and sprouting.  This represented the new church that is being brought forth to life.  I saw the potential that this shoot had, to become a strong vibrant tree, full of flowers and fruit.

This acted as a reinforcement of my current feeling that God is dividing the Church – not just letting it be divided, but actively making it happen, indeed using those with a liberal agenda to His purposes.  The dead tree is ‘ichabod’ – the Glory has departed.  The structure is still there, and indeed may take some time to decay, but the Glory is there no more.  I am left with the impression that investing any more time in this structure is futile, a waste of time.  Rather, we should be considering the growth of what God is raising up.  It has a real potential, but it’s still potential now, we need to be obedient in being grown

Now, much has happened since that original word, and one key thing has been the growth of the new Anglican Church worldwide – not apart from the Anglican Communion, but very much central to it; renewal from within.  The old structures are there, but they are increasingly dead, decaying and surviving by consuming themselves.

The future of this Communion can be found in such places as GAFCON.  And it was in relation to the second GAFCON conference held in Nairobi recently that I saw this fulfillment.

BabyBlue had this post up, talking about the Jacaranda Tree.

GAFCON 2013 is now over and the participants are preparing to return home.  I am listening to Josh Garrels, who wrote Jacaranda Tree.  I had posted online an amazing photo of a Jacaranda Tree taken by Andrew Gross in Nairobi this week during the GAFCON gathering.  The photo had remained in my mind throughout the week and it just seemed to reflect the best of this historic gathering Kenya – the best of it.  We are all branches of a beautiful tree, seeking to bloom – and sometimes in the most unexpected places.

We are indeed seeking to bloom, and will do, as much as God blesses us to do so.  Though, I still believe that to produce the fruit that the Lord calls us to, we will have to be brought, repeatedly, to our knees in repentance and prayer.  That’s the key to revival.  There is nothing we can do, except humble ourselves, and beseech the Lord to have mercy on us.  Then perhaps, perhaps, He will give us the best of gifts – Himself.  Everything else flows from that.