The night before the Unite the Kingdom March I came across several posts on TikTok from both nonbelievers and Christians saying that under no circumstances should you go to the March. It was apparently gonna be full of trouble-making, right wing fascists and racist nationalists, civil unrest was apparently gonna break out - and it apparently wasn’t safe or ‘appropriate’ to be out of your house that day - especially if you were a Christian. Charlie Kirk’s assassination had also just happened days before and so fear and frustration was heightened about being anywhere near a March, led by someone 'so political' like Tommy Robinson and with all his followers.
I obviously ignored all the posts because there was no way I was gonna to miss this march. Not only had it been marked in my diary since July, but all the fear and caution around it, made me even more determined to be there. My reasons for wanting to be there were firstly and most importantly, to share the Gospel. Secondly to put a stake in the ground as a Christian, to declare afresh that this nation belongs to Jesus and can only experience true freedom, under the Lordship of Jesus Christ because without Jesus, this nation is basically up poo’s creek. And then thirdly, because I love Tommy Robinson and have done so for the last twelve years, praying for both his salvation, wellbeing and protection.
And because of this last reason, what made being at this March even more important for me, was that Tommy has recently began following Jesus, which was such an answer to prayer and this was clearly something not only impacting his life in a significant way, but it was clearly also beginning to have an impact upon millions of patriots in this nation, who follow Tommy. I also felt like many others do, that all that had been going on with the UK and globally, as well as the growing witness of bold Christians and of course Charlie Kirk’s assassination, was drawing a generation here in the UK, towards the Lord in a significant way. And so I knew for a fact, that Jesus was going to be at this March. And praise Him galore, because He totally, totally was.
And irrespective of how the mass media portrayed it or how some Christians who weren’t at the March, seem to talk about the march, as someone who was actually there, I can tell you that the Kingdom of heaven was definitely at hand, the Holy Spirit was definitely there and Jesus was meeting people in gloriously humbling and dazzling ways. These are my thoughts about the march and mainly about how I personally saw the Lord move:
For a start, I have genuinely never ever evangelised somewhere so welcoming, so gracious and so open to the Spirit. The amount of people encouraging us as we shared the Gospel was so beautiful. Especially the men constantly coming up to my friend Dominic and showing him so much love.
The atmosphere was super pleasant and there was a sense of hope in the air. The behaviour considering the million plus people there, and the amount of alcohol and drugs being consumed was actually super calm and pretty decent (apart from when I saw a man urinating in a cup and another man who booed me when I was preaching, but then all the men around him told him to be quiet and told me to just ignore him, before helping me get down from where I had been preaching).
At times, people were so quick to sing along with hymns. At one point before Dominic even started preaching, the people at the march started singing hymns themselves, independently.
I prayed with countless people. Every time I approached people to ask if I can pray for them, aside from one man, every single person said yes. In fact, the majority of them responded with ‘yes please’. Whenever I would ask what people wanted prayer for, frequently grown men would say ‘for this country please’. I then explained to each and every one of them that this country needed Jesus and that if we are going to pray for the well-being and freedom of this country then we must pray for Jesus’s Lordship to return over this country and for it to return once again to Judeo-Christian values. Explaining that this was the only solution. And that if they agreed with me, then this is what we would be praying for together - in full agreement.
And every single time, every single one of them, agreed that this is what they wanted - and then we bowed our heads and prayed - sometimes I prayed this with one person, sometimes a few people and at other times, groups of 4-5 grown men were standing in a circle with me, all holding hands praying for Jesus’s Lordship to be restored over this nation. I prayed with people who had mental health issues and depression who wanted to be set free from tormenting thoughts, I prayed with little kids, entire families. I prayed with teenagers struggling with their GCSE’s. I prayed with countless men and women who were just beginning on a journey with God or exploring.
I prayed with baby Christians to find a church and grow in the Lord, another to return to a home group, another man on a 12 Step programme battling with addiction who had relapsed that week because of fresh anxiety around Charlie Kirk’s murder. We prayed together and he took notes in his phone about what kind of Church he should look for while on his 12 Steps programme. I prayed with a man clearly involved in the occult who after initially being resistant to prayer but then said ‘yes please’ the second time I offered, after he saw how his girlfriend was being touched by the Lord.
One of the very first encounters I had, involved praying for a man who I sensed knew the Lord when he was younger. I began to weep as the Lord’s Spirit came upon me and I said to him, you knew the Lord, as a child didn’t you? He nodded and said ‘yes I did, but then I was sexually abused’. Right there, in the centre of the March, with chanting and marching and singing and drinking and smoking, here was a man that people would look at and might label a racist or hooligan because he’s at this march, but the reality is that he was just broken, like all of us, in need of a Saviour.
After the second time I preached, I again came over with the Lord’s compassion so strongly, weeping, repeating over and over to everyone just how much Jesus loved them - and a man and woman who randomly stood in front of me watching, listening to me preach, wept too. The Lord’s presence literally felt tangible at times.
And so to hear this march being described so inaccurately, by people who were not even there, is honestly just so sad to witness. I genuinely wish more believers had been there sharing the love of the Lord. Because this was a precious opportunity to be with a million plus people, who are made in the image of God, some of whom are hungry for the Lord, with willing hearts, ripe and ready for Him to invade their world, even if the way God chooses to do it, is at a Unite the Kingdom March - one of the least likely places one would seemingly expect to find God. Yet the truth is, that this is exactly where we can expect to find God. In seemingly sinful places. Just like we found Jesus hanging around tax collectors and prostitutes.
And so, we should also totally expect to find Him in the darkest, most unconventional places - in politics, in Hollywood, in gaming, in strip clubs, brothels, nightclubs, football matches, college campuses, classroom, street corners, in the highways and byways in our world - through us!!! Yet these are the places that much of the Church will probably deem far too worldly for us, to even set foot in. But then, who will go into those spaces and places, and meet with the lost, if not us?
And of course when we go into those places, it’s not the ‘world’ that we are going there to be like. It's not the world's agenda we are going to align with. But it is the lost ‘world’ we must be longing to reach for Jesus. And it’s only in close proximity with Jesus, that we will be able to discern one kind of ‘world’ from the other kind of ‘world’.
The Bible uses the word ‘Kosmos’ - meaning ‘World’ in six ways. One of theses definitions of ‘world’ refers to 'a godless system - hostile to the cause of Christ’ (1 John 2:15-17). This is the World System led by the spirit of the world. But there is another definition of ‘World’ which is referring to ‘the inhabitants of the world’ (John 3:16) who are the lost, that Jesus died for. And it’s this second definition that should compel us to BOLDLY interrupt the godless systems of the world, not to become like them or to bow to them, align with them or come under them - but to release Jesus's lordship over them, and to reach the lost inhabitants of the world’ inside of them. And that is what I believe all the Christians that I personally know of who were at the march, were being driven by. And will continue to be driven by, no matter what it comes across as.
And of course, some of what is happening right now at places like this March will certainly be tokenism, where people want to take pictures with the Cross of Christ like some kind of badge, along with those who are just jumping on the bandwagon of seemingly 'cool' Christianity which is currently looking kinda sexy and strong and powerful; with a cause worth flighting for as you look at admirable conservatives, audaciously leading the charge, and as you watch bold street preaching on TikTok going viral, and of course when you see someone like Charlie Kirk being martyred for both his Christian and political views. Yet within the ‘tokenism’, within the potential 'Jesus is King' trend, within the coarse swearing, the chanting and the seemingly nationalist movement full of right wing politics such as this march, a beautiful move of God is beginning to bubble up.
And very similarly, within the 100 million plus people watching Charlie Kirk’s funeral and hearing the gospel untold times, within a generation arising, awakening, seeking something significant to truly stand for, is a move of God beginning to happen. Within the demonstration of the most powerful man in office across the globe, even in his successes, his position, his stature, shortcomings and his flaws, glorifying God so boldly, with a cabinet passionately following suit - it is a move of God, beginning to happen. And whether anyone recognises it or not, likes it or not, accepts it or not, I personally am so deeply encouraged by what is happening right now, because we are seeing intercessory prayers spanning decades, coming to fulfilment right now, in our very midst.
And just because it might not look like what we think it should look like, it doesn’t mean it’s not God. In fact, on the contrary, a gloriously messy, humbling, unpredictable, uncomfortable, even down right offensive revival, seems to me, to be far more like a potential move of the Lord, than any of us would probably prefer. And actually, I don’t care what it looks like, to be honest. I don’t care if it shatters my religiosity, if it offends my mind, dismantles my spiritual pride, removes my biases and exposes my blind spots, if it humbles, breaks and challenges me, I just wanna be smack bang in the centre of it, encountering the glory of Jesus dazzling in the grime - with my eyes wide open, a heart that is broken and burning, and hopefully one that is pure enough and tender enough to let Jesus do what He wants to do - no holds barred. So that He may receive the reward - a reward that He is truly worthy to receive, in our generation.
And so I pray, Precious Precious Jesus do have Your way fully and totally in our generation - beautiful, beautiful King. Prepare Your beautiful bride Lord Jesus, Make us ready for You, however You want. Make us like You. Teach us how to love. Make us one. x