New River Church was involved in this recent event, read Christen Forsters reflections on the Revival Alliance Gathering

I want to think about the covenant nature of what happened at Marsham Street 1-3 September 2011, which is perhaps best seen in the imagery of a wedding.

I now see clearly that the Gathering was the public enactment of a new covenant promise between God and the UK Church. It was like the Royal Wedding, and while only 1000 people could be physically present for the occasion, the presence of witnesses is required to make the public vows of a private moment binding for all society. The Gathering changed things even for those that were not there.

Whether you were present when Will and Kate got married doesn’t matter… Kate is now Catherine Windsor and has new authority over you. And so too with Christ’s bride in the UK, she has new status and authority.

Now it is quite right to say 'but the marriage of the lamb happens at the end of the age', which is true… but there are moments when the truth of the next age seems to push into the present for some privileged to see it. It happened at the transfiguration of Jesus: the eternal, ascended Jesus was spilling backwards into this moment in history and Peter, James and John got to see it.

I feel the same way about the Second Coming. The New Testament calls it the “Parousia of Christ” which is more literally the “Presencing of Christ”. In revival situations it is as though the second coming is closer than in later years when the visitation had lifted… the second coming will be an intensity of the presencing of Jesus, where we meet with Him in the spiritual air… so that NOW suddenly He is so present He is permanently here in the physical too.

Something of the marriage contract of the Lamb and His Bride was spilling into UK history at the Revival Alliance Gathering. If it is hard to think about it as the full marriage, think of it as an engagement party… we are bound to communicate spiritual truth via earthly metaphors and they are often inadequate, but they are what we have (John 3:12). So in some way it is hard to explain unambiguously, something our future union with all its access to intimacy is now true for the UK Church. It reminds me of those dangerous passages in Song of Songs, where the desire of the Bride and Groom even before the formal wedding day is so intense that they step over the safe boundaries caught between the rightness of waiting and the purity of love.

"I was asleep, but with a restless heart, - A voice! My beloved is knocking saying "open to me darling sister, my love, my perfect one!" - Song of Songs 5:2

Those that came to the Gathering were a selection of those in the UK who are desperate for His presence more than they are desperate for His benefits. Certainly we all still carry mixed motives in our desire for Jesus, but it is as though what is pure in its desire became the receiver of these public promises, while what was still impure became the witness to Jesus' faithfulness and grace in them.

In the marriage service there is line “marriage is a way of life that all should honour”. Going forward I believe it is important that we honour what He has done. Bill spoke about how easy it is to lose honour for the anointing that was on a moment once it has passed, and he noted how fast the awe that people had felt in Nazareth when Jesus spoke of his anointing passed as they started to analyse the details of the event. And so there will be times when everyone who was there and those that were not will ask … “So what was all that about?”, but of course things have now changed. Again to pick up Bill’s input… praying for what we already have will always be fruitless… We now need to pray and act in faith on what we have… To help keep a heavenly perspective on the timing and significance of the Revival Alliance to Father I will write a longer description of the extraordinary way in which this Gathering came about on this date, in this place with this invitation list of people.

Before leaving this prophetic motif, I want to note how important the theme of marriage restoration was to the Gathering..

There were several testimonies from the speakers of restored marriages. And on the morning that Georgian spoke about his journey into the desire of God with his wife Winnie, the Holy Spirit was speaking into marriages all around the room. At least that is the evidence of testimonies I have heard since.

I believe that the promises of God made at the Revival Alliance Gathering were promises that will be released through intimacy, so we should not be surprised that the spiritual will be manifested in the natural too.

“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify these things to you for the assemblies. I am the root and the offspring of David; the Bright and Morning Star. Now, the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ He who hears, let him say, ‘Come!’ He who is thirsty, let him come. He who desires, let him take the water of life freely. “ – Revelation 22:16-17