Aligning the Generations
With the Gen X meeting completed, the core leadership group from the Edmonton team decided to take a half-day to worship and wait on the Lord together to try to discern what to do concerning Calgary. But the Holy Spirit had other plans.
As the team listened to a worship CD, there came a point where there were declaration being made about “new life “ and “see the winter has passed, the rains are over and gone, flowers appear on the earth and the season of singing has come”. As the singers began rejoicing, singing “la la la”. suddenly the Lord gave a vision to Stephanie of her and other Gen Xers singing life and strength over/into the pastors, who were lying prostrate on the floor in worship. But she was too shy to try it! As the worship continued, the Lord also brought back to her remembrance a dream she had a year before. In this dream she was kneeling beside one of the pastors, who was sitting in a chair, looking very tired and dejected and discouraged. She looked into his eyes and said, “I will not let go until I see all your dreams come to pass.” And with that she began crying and he began crying and then she woke up.
After the worship time finished, Stephanie shared this experience and dream with the group. And then she continued saying, “I have noticed whenever I talk with Boomer leaders I always feel such a spirit of mourning over the “days of their youth”. It was as if God allowed the Boomers a glimpse of something amazing when they were young (the Jesus movement/charismatic movement in the 70s) and they were sure the kingdom was coming. Think of all the Keith Green songs about getting ready because Jesus was coming back.
But then Keith Green died. And so it seemed did a lot of the ideals of that time. And instead of experiencing the kingdom of God, these young Boomers found themselves in a season of desert wandering. A season where building His Church became mixed up with personal empire building, ministry became measured by outward success and human wisdom and church growth seminars and strategies and programs of man replaced the simplicity of waiting on the Lord for a rhema word and obeying it.
Yet through all of this, God preserved a remnant – a faithful remnant like you, who longed for the pure presence of God and who continued to contend for kingdom principles, like unity in the Church. But it was a “hard assignment” because, on the natural level, it seemed like you laboured much but for little fruit.
And in this season, I really believe the Lord wants to restore back to the Boomers the joy and the innocence of their youth – that simple and pure devotion to Christ and the faith that believes the impossible, not marked in any way by the cynicism or half-heartedness that can be the result of years of seemingly unanswered prayers. And He is calling them to rise up from the hope deferred and walk with Him as He does a new thing”.
The pastors responded by opening their hearts, some with weeping, sharing their disappointments and even struggles to trust God again and walk wholeheartedly with Him. This continued for almost 2 hours. Then, as a prophetic act, they each prayed a prayer of consecration to the Lord, confessing their unbelief and fear and affirming their trust in His sovereignty and His power to redeem completely. They stood together and in the spirit prophetically declared to their generation to be “strong and courageous” just as God had said to Joshua when he, as one of the faithful ones of his generation, finally came to the day of entering the Promised Land after 40 years of desert wandering. And they sang together as a corporate declaration: “Blessed be the name of the Lord”, exalting His sovereignty as Lord over all. Finally, they made the declaration that they would choose to rise up and link arms with the righteous younger generation to see His Kingdom come and His will be done in Albertta.
Amazingly, as soon as these declarations were completed and the Lord had positioned the Boomers the way He needed, He began to download revelation concerning Calgary. Soon there was an agreement that it seemed right to the Holy Spirit and to those present to invite a small seed from Calgary to come to Edmonton in January 2011 for a time of connecting, worshipping and waiting on the Lord together. It was also felt that the fasting and prayer forum must be reactivated – only this time Edmonton would fast and pray for Calgary.
