One Alberta
For many months, the Lord had been telling us that the Reunion would be the end of one phase and the beginning of the next. The core team felt the Lord saying there needed to be an offering to seal/close this first phase of the journey – to finish well. Naturally when we hear “offering”, we think of money. But something about that didn’t feel quite right, so we continued to pray and discern together. On Saturday morning we felt the Lord say that the offering He wanted wasn’t money, but an offering of our love for our own communities. And that, in order to close off the last season, there needed to be a shift in our mindsets from being people of Edmonton, Calgary, McLennan, Medicine Hat etc. to being the people of Alberta.
This is something the Lord first began speaking to us while in Lethbridge on the Hidden Treasures Tour - that none of us has the strenght on our own to win the battle for our community. Like the children of Israel crossing into the Jordan, God expects us to fight as one family for each others inheritances (Joshua 1:13-15).
We believe the Lord was showing us a divine plan as to how He wants to release the destiny of the province and each community in it. He showed us a vision of a big tumbler lock on a safe. With these kinds of locks, there is a sequence, a combination - 15 to the left, 30 to the right, 28 to the left –that you have to follow before the door will open. And what if it’s the same with our province - there are keys in some communities that have to be released in order to unlock what the Lord wants in other communities?
Suddenly we realized that the Lord is looking for a remnant who is willing to each lay down their own so that He might impart to us His heart to embrace the whole. Now that doesn’t mean we stop loving or praying for our community/region or doing what the Lord is asking us to do locally.
But what if it means we give up the right to control how and when the Lord fulfills His purpose in each of our communities. What if a remnant of the body in Alberta was willing to lay down the right to put all their energy and focus into releasing the destiny of their personal community and instead wait on the Lord together until He reveals His sequence/order for unlocking the destiny of the province/its communities. For example, let’s say someone lives in Edmonton. If as we seek the Lord together, God says Edmonton is #4 on His list after Medicine Hat, Peace River and Calgary. Then imagine if that person would be willing to give his heart and energy to fight for Medicine Hat, Peace River and Calgary, with the same fervour as he would for Edmonton. The power to do this comes when we realize that our number one priority is not fulfilling any specific vision or mandate, but it is bringing pleasure to His heart. So if God is calling me to lay down my own to embrace the whole, I don’t need to worry that I'm neglecting my own community. Jesus taught us that when we lose our life, we find it. If we will just walk in obedience to the Lord and surrender our rights to Him, there will be a unity that releases the corporate authority of God that will in the end fulfill all that we are each longing to see in our own communities.
Could it be this willingness to lay down our own to embrace the whole is an integral part of a new model of the Kingdom that the Lord is longing to birth in the Church of Alberta: a family of unique tribes who are willing to fight for the inheritance of their brothers?
As we shared together at the Reunion, we felt a resounding “yes” in our hearts and sensed we needed to put a spiritual stake in the ground – to make a declaration that there is a remnant in Alberta that is willing to lay down our own to embrace His ways and His heart. So then the question became – How do we do this?
Beforethe Reunion the Lord had asked the core team to encourage each person to bring something representing our communities/regions - and now we knew why. We felt to do a prophetic act by laying these objects down on a huge fibreglass relief map of Alberta that we had that was placed on the stage. And then together we would pray and make a declaration that there is one church in Alberta.
So the first order of business was to move this very large, full relief map that was placed on the stage. We were just about to get a few men to move it down when the Lord impressed something on Jim Bredeson, one of the fathers from the core team. He felt the Gen Xers needed to be the ones to move the map while the Boomers moved the chairs to make room. It was to be a prophetic picture of something that the Lord has been speaking to us about throughout our whole journey in Alberta: That it is time for the Gen X to rise up and take their place as leaders, carrying the burden for the province alongside the fathers and mothers (Boomers and older) who in turn are willing to make the room for the Gen Xers to do what the Lord is asking of them, no matter how "different" it may be.
It was amazing how much spiritual weight the Lord attached to a seemingly simple act. As the Gen X began to move the map, literally there was a holy presence of God that entered the room. With solemnity and dignity, they carefully lifted the map from the stage and carried it down in a way that was reminiscent of the priests carrying the ark. Then as they came to the spot where the map was to be placed, they paused as if waiting for instruction from the Lord and then slowly and gently they placed the map on the floor as the fathers and mothers cheered them on.
For the next hour, one by one we laid down our communities/regions before the Lord and in the presence of God and the family Just before we were about to pray together, each one of us reached down and picked up something from a community/region different than our own, symbolizing that we are willing to carry one another in the journey that is coming. And we asked God to receive our offering and prayed that He would find us worthy to entrust us with His heart for the province.
And we declared that we choose, because it is His will, to lay down our own that we might embrace the whole. And we thanked God for how He is knitting our province together and declared that we give Him the right to unlock the province and the inheritance of Alberta in the way that He wants. We committed that we would not initiate for God, we would not move from human logic. But we will wait together for His instructions and when He tells us what He wants, we, as one Body in Alberta, will mobilize to follow whatever the Spirit says. We promised that we will fight as one family to see what the Lord wants for Alberta and that we will not stop fighting until every one of the brothers and sisters has received their inheritance. And we declared that we will not rest nor give Him rest until He makes the whole of the province – from north to south and east to west – a resting place for His Glory.
If this is resonating in your heart and you want to add your agreement to what happened on Saturday, then you can pray this prayer now: “Lord, I thank you for what you are doing right now in Alberta, reuniting the family together as one. Lord, I believe that in Your divine wisdom You have the plan for how you want to unlock the destiny of our province and every community in it. And Lord, I believe you are calling me to be one of those that will lay down my right to pursue the release of my own community/region alone so that I might embrace the whole of Your plan for Alberta. Lord, I want to be numbered among the company of those whom you are gathering together in this province to seek Your face and to hear from You Your instruction on how to fulfill Your divine purposes for Alberta and every community/region in it. Lord, I promise to fight for the inheritance of all my brothers and sisters in Alberta and I commit not to rest until You make the whole of this province a resting place for Your glory. In Jesus name, Amen!
