Alberta is a land rich with spiritual heritage. Generations of faithful believers have prayed and preached and declared and worshipped over our land. And their words and their faith became seeds that went deep into the prairie soil where, like winter wheat, they remain dormant, hidden in the earth, a preserved inheritance of righteousness awaiting an appointed time.
Over the past few years, God has been awakening believers from all across Alberta with the call that the time has come to unlock the preserved fortunes and raise up the foundations of many generations. He has begun “reuniting His family’, gathering those of like heart and spirit to journey together with Him to see the fulfillment of His desires for our province.
This is the story of our journey.... so far.
The Thirty
In early 2009, a diverse group of believers answered a call to fast and pray together in a continuous chain to seek God’s face for His plan to unlock the destiny of the city of Edmonton. Each of us committed to fast one day per month and share whatever the Lord revealed to us on an internet forum (like a bulletin board on a website) so that together we could discern the direction of the Lord.. Although most of us had never met each other, we soon came to know one another “by the spirit”, as we heard God’s heart for the city being uniquely expressed through each individual on the fast.
During the fast the Lord made it clear to us that what He was calling us to isn’t a project or a one- time “event” - it is a journey with Him. God has divine purposes for our communities and province. And He is looking for people to whom He can entrust the secrets of His heart and His strategies for fulfilling His desires. But first He needs to know that He can trust us – that we won’t take His vision and run off and try to accomplish it our way, through our own human wisdom. Or that we won’t try to harness the power of God to build empires for ourselves.
And one of the ways He tests our hearts is by asking us to do something and seeing if we will remain obedient, even if things don’t proceed as we expected. When we began our fast, we didn’t have an “end date” – we were committed to fast until we were released by the Lord. And we didn’t have a full 30 people – we had 23 - but we felt the Lord said to begin and He would add others as we went along.
As we began fasting in March 2009 we expected our obedience to trigger an avalanche of revelation, visions and strategies for the city. But instead God began speaking to us about our hearts, exposing inner motives and showing us areas in our lives that were not in full submission to His Lordship. As the months rolled by and still no clear “vision” or “strategy” for the city emerged, discouragement set in and the questions started. “Why are we doing this? What is the point? Nothing is happening”. Soon people began forgetting to fast or to post on the forum. And some took these circumstances as a “sign” the Lord was leading them to quit. So instead of adding people, growing towards our complement of 30, we were shrinking.
Then one day in early October, the Lord asked us to do a simple thing. “Each one of you go back,” He said, “and remember the story of how I called you into this fast (all of us had been called by very different but very clear divine leading into the fast). “ And” He continued “ask Me if you are released to stop”.
As each of us remembered the clear leading of the Lord at the beginning of the fast, the fog of discouragement began lifting. And each one of us committed to continue to fast no matter how long it took and even if we never received a clear strategy . We would continue in simple obedience until we had a clear corporate witness the Lord was releasing us – for no other reason – with no other agenda – except to please the Lord’s heart. .
And then an amazing thing happened. In early November, the Lord spoke clearly to us that our obedience had touched His heart and now He would move on our behalf to fulfill His purposes. “This fast will finish at the end of December. But before that,” He said, “I will add the rest of the 30 – and they will be called in the same sovereign way as those who joined at the beginning. And you will finish December in a blaze of glory”. And that is exactly what happened – God began highlighting people to us that we should share with about the fast. As we did, His presence would come so strongly that people started weeping uncontrollably even in public places.
December was a month of divine encounters as God began stirring us about a clear trumpet call that was about to be released. And He also gave us the green light to finally meet – face- to-face for the first time at the end of January.
At the end of January the forum team gathered for the first time for fellowship, worship and prayer. The worship was led by Stephanie Mainville from New Brunswick, who was part of the fasting for Edmonton (God had led certain people from outside Edmonton to be part of the fast for the city.) Just before she began playing, she shared:
“As a person from the Maritimes I feel to say “thank you” to you, as Albertans. Alberta has been a place of blessing for many people from the East, who come here to get jobs so they can feed their families back home. And I’ve noticed that instead of being thankful, it seems all you ever hear across the country is people grumbling and complaining about “rich” Alberta. But I want to bless Alberta because you have been a blessing to us and to the rest of the country”.
As her hands touched the keyboard, an amazing presence of God swept through the room and we were all caught up instantly into a place of intense declarative worship and intercession. And God graced us with the gift of divine unity and we were able to easily flow together in worship and prayer in a way that often takes months or years to develop with others.
After about an hour, the Lord released us to begin to share with one another what we had felt during the worship. Rick Van Dewark, one of the pastors from Edmonton, said:
“When Stephanie first spoke her blessing over Alberta, my spirit was deeply moved. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone from Eastern Canada say thank you to Alberta. And during the worship, I felt the Lord spoke to me that we in turn need to honour and welcome her and her gift here, in our city. Does this witness with anyone?”
There was an immediate agreement and while we were completing this prophetic act, the Lord spoke that it was not only Stephanie but all the worship leaders in the room that needed to be honoured and welcomed.
One of the callings on the city of Edmonton is to birth new sounds of worship that will touch the nation and the world. Because of this destiny, worship-focused events have always flourished in the city – YC, Breakforth as well as ongoing city-based worship gatherings for young people such as Glimpse and Nights of Praise (U of A). Also during the Latter Rain Movement there were meetings in Edmonton during which there was a manifestation of a heavenly choir and the release of prophetic singing in the spirit that became a hallmark of the Latter Rain movement worldwide.
But sadly, because the enemy knows of these purpose for the city, worship leaders have also experienced a great deal of warfare and resistance, especially younger people who had a longing in their hearts to see a deeper connection between worship, intercession and the prophetic flowing together in one expression.
As the worship leaders present stepped forward they were encircled by the pastors who said, “We know that many times you have suffered attack through church leadership who didn’t understand what the Lord was trying to birth through you. And on behalf of the pastors we want to say we are so sorry, we repent.”
At this, a wave of the Holy Spirit hit the worship leaders and some fell to the ground weeping. A time of intense prayer and ministry followed during which the declaration was made that Edmonton is a safe place for the Lord to birth the new sounds He is desiring to birth. With this, the whole room was enveloped in the peace of God. And as we felt the pleasure of the Lord we knew we had fulfilled His purpose for this meeting.
It was also in January 2010 that the Lord revealed to us another piece of the puzzle of His purposes in our province – through Women’s Aglow.
Danyele Bloom, national president of Aglow in Canada, came to do meetings in Edmonton and stayed at the home of Stephanie Muzyka (Danyele and Stephanie knew each other very causally through Watchmen). Stephanie had spoken at an Aglow provincial meeting and Edmonton meeting in the prior few months. After the Edmonton meeting in October 2009 the Lord spoke to her that Aglow would play a key role in the journey in Alberta. Stephanie tested this word with the forum and everyone felt a witness from the Lord but none of us knew how or when this would happen.
During their time together, Danyele shared with Stephanie about Aglow’s mandate and history, including the fact that the first official chapter of Aglow in Canada was birthed in Edmonton in early 1970s. Aglow was a vibrant organization which drew together women who were stirred by the rising charismatic movement and wanted to learn how to hear God and submit their lives to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
One morning, Danyele invited Stephanie to accompany her to a Bible study in Sherwood Park during which Danyele shared the recent history of difficulties in Aglow that had almost caused it to be shut down a few years before. As Stephanie listened a question rose in her mind “Just what is it that the enemy fears so much about these women that he will go to this extent to try to wipe them out?” Almost immediately the Lord answered.
“They think they made a mistake,” He began, “Where once there were hundreds of women coming to the meetings now there are only a few. And those that remain feel like they are 'a bunch of old women in a dying ministry.' ”
“But what if,” the Lord continued “it wasn’t a mistake? What if it was My plan? I knew the day would come for the restoration of the revelation of the Kingdom that I taught the Early Church . And what if I placed this mandate on a younger generation knowing it would take an army of seasoned midwives to walk alongside them to bring to birth what is in my heart. What if, for the last 40 years (40 being the number of testing) I have been preparing this army in Aglow?
With this the vision stopped and at that moment, Danyele turned to Stephanie and asked if she had anything to share. Tentatively she submitted what the Lord had just spoken to her. Immediately Danyele responded. “”While you were talking, the Lord was reminding me of a prophetic word shared by Peggy Kennedy during our national meeting here in Edmonton in 2000.” In part, that word said:
“I saw something like a surface smaller than a 3 x 8 table with a drape placed over top of it. And God began to speak, some will look and say: 'Just what I thought, that’s the corpse of Aglow. At least someone was decent enough to pull the drape over the body.' God wouldn't talk like that but it's out in the land. And everyone is so afraid to lift the drape for fear there is a dead corpse underneath.
There is a crisis on the Local level. They pray, bake muffins, set up but the chairs are empty. Brokenhearted, they can't find advisors and no one wants to serve on the Board.
And I could see the tears of Area Boards and the National Boards. Afraid to lift the drape, underneath it propably is a corpse. But the younger generation will walk up to that draped surface and pull the drape away and you'll discover under the drape is no corpse. It is an Architect's model of that which is being developed and about to come forth.
It's an Architect's model, all built to scale and it will fit anywhere in Canada - city, rural Canada , the Muslims, natives, ethnic groups, north, south, central, the Atlantic provinces, Nunavut, the Island.”
“As you were sharing,” Danyele continued, “I felt a wave of reproach and shame roll off the women.”
In the weeks that would follow this meeting, Danyele shared this experience with her national board and Stephanie with the Alberta team. There was a unanimous witness from all of a connection between the spiritual mothers of intercession in Aglow and God’s purposes for the province of Alberta. Prophetically God has spoken that Alberta carries a mandate to pioneer and transform, birthing new models and ways of functioning, especially in how the generations walk together. Interestingly of the 30 people who God called into the fast in 2009, exactly 15 were Gen X an 15 were boomers. Although we don’t understand it fully, we are committed to continue to walk together, seeking the Lord until He reveals more of His strategies.
As the fast was ending in December 2009, a number of words and scriptures came forward about a clear trumpet call. In early January the Lord began speaking about a new step of obedience, only this time the focus was not Edmonton but the whole province of Alberta.
Alberta is a land rich with spiritual heritage – generations of faithful believers have walked the land and worked the land, praying and worshiping. And the Lord spoke to us that every place their foot trod became an inheritance. And as God’s word was spoken in every church, in every home and His name exalted in worship, it fell like rain on the land and watered it. And every prayer offered and every promise proclaimed fell like seed, a seed of righteousness that went deep into the prairie soil and remains yet today.
For there were many who lived in faith and died in faith never seeing the harvest that was promised. And when the seeds did not bear fruit in the generation in which they were planted, the enemy thought he had succeeded in thwarting God’s purposes for our province.
But the Lord spoke to us saying, “But the enemy did not know, he did not see that they were not lost but hidden away for the time of the fulfillment of the generations. You must call forth that life that is in the land. You must release a prophetic cry to the seeds that are lying dormant in the land that the time has come to wake up. And they shall spring to life and bear fruit that will be gathered in as part of the great end time harvest.
“You will see the fruit of the labour of many in the past. And you will delight in the beauty of My purposes that were planted here by the generations. And you will link hands across time as you rejoice together - they that their labour was not in vain and that I had indeed blessed the work of their hands and that hope is springing forth that my purposes and requirements for this land will be fulfilled.”
As a first step in this divine strategy of calling forth the life in the land, the Lord asked us to travel throughout the month of July (2010) to different communities in Alberta and join with the faithful praying remnant so that together, as an act of prophetic intercession, we could begin to speak life to the dormant, hidden seeds of righteousness. In obedience a small team traveled almost 7000 kms meeting with hundreds of believers in communities from Grande Prairie to Medicine Hat, from Rocky Mountain House to Lloydminster, sharing stories about our spiritual history and calling to life the righteous inheritance in the land.
Near the end of the Awaken Tour, the team visited Calgary and while there, the Lord reminded us about a prophetic word Rick Joyner had given to Edmonton and Calgary in 1991.
Regarding Alberta’s Destiny
A Word for Calgary and Edmonton – Rick Joyner - 1991
" I combine Calgary and Edmonton in this word because their purpose is linked in the spirit. It has been the enemy’s strategy to breed competition and enmity between these cities because it is God’s purpose to unify them. His people in both cities will begin to form relationships and an interchange that will become such a bright light that they will be called 'the Northern Lights.' The oil will come from Edmonton but the fire from Calgary (it is no accident that their hockey teams are the Edmonton Oilers and the Calgary Flames.) The church in Calgary will light the fires but the church in Edmonton will keep them going.
There is also an event coming in the natural that will be a witness to coming spiritual events. There will be a major oil discovery made by a “wildcat” exploration project. Just as wildcat oilmen drill in places that no one has looked in before, the church in Alberta is about to discover an anointing in an area that they have not searched before (by the church in Alberta.)
Just as wildcatters are usually 'independents' such will be the nature of those who make the coming significant spiritual 'discovery'. There are also other parallels in the oil industry that you would do well to pay heed to. Historically the biggest oil reserves have been found by wildcatters, but they often end up in bankruptcy because they don’t have the administrative abilities to run the business built on their discoveries. Spiritual 'wildcatters' also will be important in directing you to the anointing, but don’t follow their ways after they find it.
Spiritual independents who are prone to look for new things are usually the first to find what the Lord is about to do, but seldom do they have the wisdom or discipline to properly administrate the new moves of the spirit. If the proper administration is not brought in a new move, before it has gravitated to an extreme, the desperation of impending disaster will open the door for those with a 'control spirit' to take over and kill the movement through domination.
For what is coming to this region, Calgary will have the fire but Edmonton will have most of the resources - they need each other to accomplish their calling. Just as Barnabas had to go get Saul of Tarsus before he could be released in his own apostolic ministry, the churches in Calgary and Edmonton must reach out to each other. If the church in Calgary will now spend more time praying for the church in Edmonton than they do for themselves, their light will shine brighter. If the church in Edmonton will now spend more time praying for the church in Calgary than they do for themselves, their anointing will increase.
As this word was read out loud in the meeting, a conviction fell on us all. Those from Edmonton postured ourselves face down in front of the Calgarians, repenting first to the Lord for trying to build the church in Edmonton without regard to His counsel/ways and then repenting to Calgary for not praying for them. We then stood together as the two cities and prayed for one another and the province. And we felt in our spirits a door open to another step in the journey for the province.
After the tour, the Edmonton team once again began to seek the Lord for His next steps in the journey, knowing there was more He wanted to do in particular between the “twin elder brother” cities of Edmonton and Calgary.
To our surprise the Lord answered us that before we could address the issue of Edmonton and Calgary together, first Gen X from the two cities needed to meet. .
Generation X refers to people born c 1965- 1979. Sandwiched between two much larger, dominant generations, the Baby Boomers (1945—1964) and their children, the Millenials (also known as the Echo Boom or Gen Y, born 1980-2000) Gen X have been called “a lost generation”. This has been especially true in the Church where Gen Xers, who have been wired by God to value relationships and reality, have found it very difficult to feel at home in religious structures and systems that seem to value performance, programs and position over relationship with God and the body. Feeling powerless to effect real change and disillusioned by strained relationships with the older (mostly Boomer) leaders, they have exited the Church en masse, and in many cases also abandoned the faith.
And yet God has a divine plan for Gen X, conceived in His heart before the foundation of the world. For centuries, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has longed to break down the barriers and misunderstandings that have divided generations that He might have for Himself one united family. And He has uniquely fashioned Gen X and positioned them at this time in history to fulfill a mandate to be a bridge between the generations.
On the Awaken Tour the Lord instructed us to focus on connecting with spiritual mothers of intercession and the Gen X generation and we had conducted some meetings specifically for Gen Xers. So, in obedience to the Lord, we contacted some of these Gen Xers from Edmonton and Calgary and a small remnant met in mid October for 2 days of worship and seeking the Lord together.
Almost immediately the Lord began challenging the Gen Xers concerning His heart to see restoration between the generations. Many of those present had been wounded by spiritual leaders, often feeling used for their gifts without being valued personally. They had reacted to this hurt by withdrawing from the church community and rejecting any sort of spiritual authority. As the Lord brought painful memories to the surface with them came a flood of strong emotion.
In the divine orchestration of the Lord, it was at this very point in time that some of the spiritual fathers (pastors) arrived, having been previously invited to join us for lunch and a time of sharing hearts that afternoon. With emotions running so high, we asked the Lord’s wisdom on how to proceed. He directed us to first enter in worship together rather than opening any discussions. In this way we could activate our spirits so that we didn’t find ourselves being led by emotions and reactions instead of the voice of the Lord.
During a powerful hour of worship that followed, the Lord began moving on the hearts of the Gen Xers. One of them, a soft-spoken engineer named Kevin, began to share his heart, saying:
“When we were talking this morning about our experiences in churches, I felt like someone had put a knife in my heart and was twisting and twisting it. I never realized until today how much bitterness I hold toward the Boomers. All throughout the worship, the Lord was convicting me and I feel like I need to repent to the fathers for harbouring hatred like this in my heart."
“Rick”, he continued, “would it be possible for you to stand in proxy for the leaders that have hurt me in my life so I can repent?”
As Kevin began to repent to Rick, the presence of God filled the room and other Gen Xers began weeping and joining in their hearts with Kevin’s repentance. As Rick embraced Kevin and began praying and speaking over his life, a tremendous wave of peace, freedom and joy settled into the room as God once again made His pleasure manifest among us.
What followed was hours of beautiful heart-to-heart sharing between generations. The Gen Xers in particular were touched to hear the hearts of the fathers – as they shared their own longing and struggles to see unity established among church leadership and the kingdom values embraced in their congregations and denominations.
That evening, as the Gen Xers were once again on their own, the Lord placed before them this challenge: Would they be willing to leave the past in the past and trust God to heal them as they rise up and join arms with the remnant of fathers and mothers who are longing to see the Kingdom of Heaven being established in Alberta? One by one each knelt to make this commitment before Heaven and one another and then together they made this declaration: “There is a remnant of Gen Xers in this province, Lord, who are saying: 'It’s not about us – it’s about You! About Your will, Your way! And we commit, Lord, to journey with You until Your Glory fills the church in this province like the waters cover the sea!' "
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.
In the midst of one of the biggest snowstorms to hit in decades, a stalwart band of Calgarians plowed their way to Edmonton on January 7, 2011 for a time of worship and waiting together on the Lord with their brothers and sister in the Capital Region.
We had expected the Lord would dive into the issues between the two cities – the historic animosity that has characterized the relationship between Calgary and Edmonton since before the founding of the province. But to our surprise He focused instead on the unity among the generations. The fathers and mothers felt the Lord had a specific message for the Gen X generation. So Jim Bredeson directed all the Gen Xers to sit in their chairs and for each Boomer to place themselves directly in front of a Gen Xer. At the count of 3 the Boomers were to lift up the Gen Xers from their seat by their hands and declare “Rise up and take your place”.
We really didn’t know what to expect from such a simple prophetic act. But, as we obeyed, a wave of the Holy Spirit travelled from one side of the room to the other. Some Gen Xers reported afterwards that in that moment they felt instantly delivered from a heaviness/weight/sorrow they had been carrying for many years.
The Lord then led us to stand together, arms interlinked – Gen X and Boomers from Edmonton and Calgary - and declare, through song, our willingness to surrender, to do our part in seeing His purposes in the province fulfilled.
Dwell in the midst of us
Come and dwell in this place
Dwell in the midst of us
Come and have Your way
Dwell in the midst of us
Wipe the tears from our faces
Dwell in the midst of us
You can have Your way
Not our will but Yours be done
Come and change us
Not your will but your be done
Come sustain us
Dwell in the midst of us
You can have Your way
We then continued in an extended time of worship that lasted the rest of the evening. When we returned the next morning, the Lord said we were not finished with the worship and so we continued for another hour or so, until we felt a release in our spirits. We then shared with one another what the Lord had been speaking to us/doing in our hearts. Two clear themes emerged:
As we finished our time together, the Lord spoke a simple word to us: “Now you can call this Alberta.” And we felt the Lord enlarging our hearts with His heart for the whole province and we sensed that from that day forward Edmonton and Calgary were to begin to fast and pray together, both for each other’s cities and for the province as a whole.
When Calgary and Edmonton first began to fast and pray together the Lord spoke to us that He has many “hidden treasures” in Alberta – faithful believers who are standing to see His Kingdom come and His Glory fill their communities/regions and this province. Many times these ‘forerunners’ (individuals or churches) find themselves alone and isolated. And the Lord said: “I set the lonely in families. The time has come to reunite My family in Alberta.” And He said He would send us to certain places in the province and, although the order may not seem logical or efficient in the natural, there was a “logic” in the Spirit that we would not be able to fully understand. For this reason, it was most important that we listen carefully and go only where He asked us, when He asked us.
And the first place He spoke clearly for us to go to was Medicine Hat.
In April 2009, there was a gathering in the city of Medicine Hat, facilitated by Watchmen for the Nations, bringing people together to worship and seek the face of the Lord for Medicine Hat. A few pastors from the Edmonton team felt called to attend. Mark Adams explains what happened next:
“We were asked to share our hearts, especially about Edmonton. I explained how I had received a vision during the worship of the sun going down and being lassoed and pulled back up. And I heard the Lord say: “I’m holding back the time – I’m giving Edmonton another chance.” Meanwhile, my friend, Peter, noticed he was unable to lift him arms in worship. So he shared how he felt it was a prophetic picture of where we were at in Edmonton – we couldn’t lift our arms up and we needed help. David Demian, who was facilitating the meeting, asked the people of Medicine Hat if they would surround us, lift up our arms and pray for Edmonton. The believers responded and the YWAM Island Breeze team even did a “hauka” war dance over us – calling the warriors in Edmonton to rise up.
We had just begun our fasting and prayer the month before in Edmonton and hearing what had happened in Medicine Hat was a great encouragement and gave us an important spiritual “boost” at the very beginning of our journey.
During the Awaken Tour in July 2010 the team visited Medicine Hat where they met with some intercessors who shared that they were still praying for Edmonton (almost 1 ½ years later!) and wanted to know if there was any news about the city. When we heard this we were deeply touched and we felt the day would come when the Lord would release us to travel to Medicine Hat, to thank them face-to-face and share with them the story of our journey so they could see the fruit of their prayers.
That day finally arrived on May 27, 2011 as a team of 16 from Edmonton and Calgary travelled to Medicine Hat to gather with believers from the area. After a time of worship and sharing we asked them if we could lift up their arms pray for them. All those from Medicine Hat responded and a deep time of ministry followed.
The next morning we gathered again and the Lord spoke to us to have a “family circle” – so we put the chairs in a large oval and asked those from Medicine Hat to share their hearts. Many shared how the church in Medicine Hat had been experiencing tremendous warfare over the past year and many were feeling discouraged and disillusioned. But many of them had experienced a breakthrough and rolling away of hope deferred the previous night as they felt connected to/linked in with the wider body of the province. A number of them felt to join the journey for the province – being added to the company of those fasting and praying.
While in Medicine Hat, the Lord spoke clearly to one of the team during worship the name “Grande Prairie” while another team member also heard the name “McLennan”. As the team talked together there was a witness that God wanted us to travel to the north first.
In mid June a small team traveled north to meet the “family” in both communities. In the meeting in Grande Prairie the Holy Spirit took over in an incredible way. After a time of worship the Lord would not release us to share – just to wait. As we did, those gathered began praying and making declaration by the Spirit. To our amazement, what they were sharing was the same message the Lord has been given us. Through this God confirmed something deep in our spirits: This journey is in God’s hands and He is orchestrating each step. We have only to obey Him wholeheartedly.
The Lord surprised us again in McLennan. McLennan is a small community of 800 about 45 minutes south of Peace River. Yet, as we began to share with the believers gathered, the Lord told us to speak not just about His purposes in Alberta, but how they are linked to what He is doing in the nation and nations. We felt there is a special birthing anointing on McLennan for the whole Peace Region – they are like a Nazareth, a place from which God's kingdom purposes are declared.
The following week some of the team visited Medicine Hat again – the Lord had spoken to us that there were specific individuals who were not able to make the meeting in May or who wanted to know more about the journey. We had amazing times of connecting hearts and sharing our lives and passions with one another.
The following week, a different team visited Vegreville. We expected to meet with a few Gen Xers, but were surprised by a wonderful complement of seniors who also showed up – the faithful remnant who have been praying and standing for decades in Vegreville and the surrounding communities. God visited us with a rich sense of His presence and He stirred us about the urgency of hour – of the importance of aligning with His purposes in our province.
From Vegreville we again headed north to Fairview and Peace River. Again the Lord was speaking to us about the importance of the Peace Region and that He had specific members of the family that we needed to meet and connect with now. “What if I ask you to travel up there for just one person – will you go?” the Lord asked us. And we could feel the heart of the Father who would have given His Son if only to ransom one of us – and so we went. We were so glad we did, as we sensed the pleasure of the Lord during the whole trip and we had the opportunity to meet such faithful saints who have been contending for God’s kingdom to come in the northwestern part of Alberta!
From the north we headed deep south to our final stop – Lethbridge. What an incredible time we had with the body of Christ from the Southeastern region who packed the King of Kings fellowship on that hot July evening. It was during our sharing in Lethbridge that the Lord revealed something powerful to us. He reminded us of the story of the children of Israel crossing over into the Promised Land. In Joshua 1 we see that because the inheritance of some of the tribes was actually east of the Jordan, they didn’t have to cross over in order to possess. And yet the Lord gave them a very clear instruction in Joshua 1: 13 - 15:
"Remember the command that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: ‘The LORD your God is giving you rest and has granted you this land.’ Your wives, your children and your livestock may stay in the land that Moses gave you east of the Jordan, but all your fighting men, fully armed, must cross over ahead of your brothers.
You are to help your brothers until the LORD gives them rest, as He has done for you, and until they too have taken possession of the land that the LORD your God is giving them.
After that, you may go back and occupy your own land, which Moses the servant of the LORD gave you east of the Jordan toward the sunrise.”
None of the tribes were supposed to be settled/find rest in their own inheritance until they had fought for and secured the inheritance of all their brothers. This was the model the Lord gave them crossing over into the Promised Land – one family, one army, fighting for the establishment of the whole.
Many of us have fought in prayer for our own communities/regions faithfully for many years. And yet we have been unable to beat back the giants and win the victory on our own. Maybe that’s because the Lord never intended us to move independently, fighting our battles separately. Maybe the destiny of Vegreville is tied to the destiny of Medicine Hat and the destiny of Medicine Hat is tied to the destiny of Grande Prairie etc.
The Lord really opened our hearts to this perspective as we traveled the province during these two months. Before we went God spoke clearly to us that we had to go to different communities in a specific order that wouldn’t make sense to the natural mind, but after we were done we would look back and see a pattern. And that’s exactly what happened. Now we can see that each community/region has a specific different spiritual deposit and mantle on it, and in each place we would receive revelation that was a unique piece of the puzzle that was sharpening for us the picture of God’s heart for the province.
And if it is true that none of us on our own has the strength to win the battle for our own community, maybe that’s why, in the wisdom of God, He is reuniting His family in Alberta?
So with a renewed sense of faith and anticipation we prepared for our next step of obedience: the Family Reunion in Edmonton in August.
The Call
Before the foundation of the world, God had a Dream. A Dream of a family and a home.
God created the earth in all its majesty and wonder and within the earth He laid a jewel of beauty – a garden. And the Lord God took the man and woman that He had created in His very own image and likeness and made the garden their home. And there He rested in intimate fellowship with His family.
Then the enemy came. Through lies, he deceived first Eve, then Adam and by their rebellion, sin was born. With sin came fear and deception and worst of all, separation from the Father.
But none of this changed the Dream. Knowing the end from the beginning, the Lord already had a plan of redemption. First came the Law with its prescriptions to cover the sin and then instructions for a tabernacle, then for a temple. At least in this way, He could dwell closer to His family.
Yet, all of these were just shadows of the ultimate plan. The Father would send His only-begotten Son to earth and Jesus, who being the very nature of God, would empty Himself of all strength and power to become obedient to death on the cross. As the one died for the many, the power of sin and death would be destroyed and Jesus would be laid as the Chief Cornerstone of a new temple while every member of God’s household would be transformed into living stones to be fashioned by the Lord Himself into His holy habitation. Then, as Jesus prayed in John 17, this dwelling place of God, a family united by and filled with divine glory, would become a great light shining in the darkness showing all those who were lost the way home to the Father.
This summer the Father is sending an invitation for a Family Reunion to a representation of His “hidden treasures” in Alberta– faithful believers from different denominations, generations, spheres of influence and regions of the province whose hearts are united in the desire to see God’s Dream fulfilled in the Church of Alberta. In obedience to His call, we will gather in Edmonton, August 18-20, 2011, choosing to lay down our own individual dreams and visions so that corporately we can enter into His presence in worship and waiting on Him. As we do so, we believe He will continue the process of knitting us supernaturally into One Family and revealing to us secrets about the inheritance He has reserved for Alberta for such a time as this.
Since most of the more than 50 people who were attending the Reunion had never met, we began the session introducing ourselves. It was exciting to see people gathered from all over the province – from McLennan and Grande Prairie, right down to Brooks, Medicine Hat and Lethbridge – and many points in between!
As we sought the Lord before the Reunion we sensed that He wanted our very first act together to be to lay down/offer to the Lord all of our expectations about what would happen during these days, so that we could prepare a place for the Holy Spirit to move with complete freedom. In the months preceding the Reunion, there had been many visions, dreams and other revelation being released as we fasted and prayed. The danger of such revelation, however, is that, without being aware, we can start to form expectations of what and how things will happen. Rick shared a great analogy of how the prophetic is like a historical murial. In a murial, all of the significant events of a community or people group are compressed into one representative picture. If you look at that picture and assume that everything took place at the same time, you would have a wrong interpretation. And so it is with the prophetic. Sometimes God shows us things all together, but in reality some things are for now, and some are for later. And we don’t always know which is which. That’s why we need to be willing to offer back to the Lord even the things He reveals to us and give Him the right and freedom to fulfill His purposes in the way and the timing that He desires.
So we felt to take a time of worship, during which we could ask the Lord to highlight to us any expecations we had that He wanted us to lay down. Even in the area of the worhip, the Lord wanted to deal with our expectations. Tabitha Lemaire, a worship leaders from Montreal who has been intimately involved in every step of the journey - including traveing and leading worship during the Awaken Tour - was supposed to be leading worship. And yet the Lord directed us to use a specific prophetic worship CD about surrender. So we obeyed and entered into worship. As the Lord would bring to our minds an expectation we might have, we wrote it down on a slip of paper and placed it on a map of Alberta at the front of the room. When the worship was completed, 4 people from 4 corners of the province each took hold of an end of the map and raised it to heaven as Rick led us in a prayer of releasing our expectations.. Together we declared that there is a company of believers in Alberta willing to give the Lord the full freedom to move in whatever way pleases Him.
On Friday morning, as the core team sought the Lord together before the meeting, we felt there was a cloak of heaviness/weariness/hope deferred on many from the past season. And we sensed the Lord said He wanted to remove that so that He might reposition us for the new season. We weren’t sure exactly how the Lord would do this so we agreed to enter into worship and see how the Lord would lead.
Tabitha brought us into a powerful time of worship as she began to sing spontaneously about the Lord restoring our souls, turning our mourning into dancing and turning our sadness into joy. Together we sang in declaration that we are letting go of the old and not looking back; a new day is dawning. During this worship, the Lord reminded Stephanie of a past experience and as she shared it with the core, there was a witness she was to share it with the whole group.
"A few years ago," Stephainie began, "I woke up one morning and heard the Lord say, “Re-orient yourself towards victory”. And I felt a strong impression that I needed to rearrange the furniture in my bedroom, particularly my bed. For the previous 10 years, my bedroom furniture had been in the exact same position and for good reason. Because of the way the doors, closets and windows are set in my bedroom , there is one logical place for the bed to be!
As I lay there wondering if this idea was the product of an overtired mind, the Lord spoke clearly to me again. “Stephanie,” He said ,” I want you to understand that the season that is coming will be completely different than the last season. I am about to display Myself as the Mighty God in a way that you and much of the Church have never experienced. So the reason I want you to shift around your bedroom is so that every morning the first thing you see is a brand new perspective. That way you will have a constant, daily reminder that nothing is ever going to be the same again.”
A few weeks later, I was spending some time meditating on Joshua and the children of Israel crossing over into the Promised Land. And suddenly the Lord asked me an interesting question: “Stephanie, how different do you think I appeared to a slave in the midst of 400 years of bondage in Egypt versus to the children of Israel who posessed the Promised Land?” After I thought about it for a while, I realized the answer was that He probably appeared vastly different. For the slave in Egypt, who was crying out day and night to God for deliverance, it would be a pretty big stretch to see God as a Mighty God. But not so for a 20-year-old who marched 7 times around Jericho and then saw the walls – big thick chariot-racing-on-top-sized walls - instantly disappear.
Now we know that God really wasn’t different, because He is eternal and His character and nature are unchanging. So it wasn’t that He was “less mighty” when the children of Israel were in bondage than when they were in triumphant victory. He only appeared to be so when viewed through the prism of their experiences.
I think this is a good analogy of where we are at in the Church right now. Theologically we know that God is the Mighty One, the Sovereign King. And yet it seems like our enemy has succeeded to destroy far more often than God has succeeded to deliver. Our hearts echo with the cry of Habakkuk thousands of years ago – Oh Lord, we have heard of your fame, we have heard of your deeds… Yet few of us have experienced the demonstrations of God’s might in our own personal lives or ministries in any tangible or lasting ways.
But, just as the day came when finally the children of Israel passed from a season of desert wandering to a season of victorious possessing, something in our spirits is telling us it’s time now, that His kingdom IS coming and we must prepare ourselves for a dramatic shift. So how then do we re-orient ourselves for victory?
First we need to close the doors of the old season. At a time of transition in my life, I received this picture from the Lord. I saw a huge hallway and on the left there was a line of open doors and on the right was a line of doors that were all firmly shut. And God said to me, “You have to be willing to completely close all the old doors before I can open any of the new doors. Because if you don’t, the enemy will try to run from the old open doors and into the new season. (As He said this I saw in my mind’s eye something like a little lizard trying to crawl across the hallway from one side to the next). So you must close all the old doors before I can open any of the new ones.”
Secondly, we have to know that the burden of changing or being delivered isn’t on us – we don’t have to labour or strive to fix ourselves. In our modern world we are so surrounded by information and analysis – personality tests, self-help books - that we have all identified our problems and maybe even the roots of them (“it’s because my mother dropped me when I was 2” etc). And while we may be more familiar with the causes of our bondages, still we are powerless to free ourselves, because that power belongs to the Lord alone. So it’s not about us trying harder or striving for some “big experience” to change us. In fact, sometimes we can even hinder the movement of God in our hearts and lives because we have a framework or expectation already set of how God has to change or deliver us.
Some of us have a long history of hurts, bad experiences and/or failures. And we may think that the only way we are going to be able to move on with God is to work through all that messy past. And yet the amount of time and effort that would take can make it seem impossible/overwhelming. It’s like having a shoelace that is such a tangled mess of knots you don’t know if you have the time or energy to undo it.
But what if there was another solution? What if, instead of untangling the knots, you just cut the shoelace off and bought a new one? And what if that’s what God wants to do with our past? Not to work through all the junk, but to just supernaturally cut it off and give us a fresh new start?
“Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert
and streams in the wasteland. Isaiah 43:18-19
God wants to re-orient us towards victory! “To re-orient” literally means “to cause to turn to or face the east again”. The east is where the sun rises – where the new day begins. And the east is also where, we know, Jesus will split the sky when He returns as our victorious King.
So what does the Lord require of us? Simply a commitment to reposition our hearts – to forget the former things and to close the doors of the past. God is asking us to turn our backs to the pain and sorrow, the disappointments and failures and hope deferred of the past season and to stand in faith, fixing our eyes on Jesus, trusting that the Mighty One will do all that He has promised.
And as we choose to do this, we will position ourselves for a release of the joy of the Lord that is meant to be our strength. Joy is not an emotion – another word for happiness. Joy is a spiritual force that is unleashed by the revelation of the sovereignty of God. It comes from knowing that no matter what we face, God is in control – He is the King and we are in His hand. And there is no power of the enemy that can remove us from His hand. So when we face hardship, we know that God is permitting it as part of His plan to shape, refine, discipline and train us. When we understand this, then we can “count it all joy” when we suffer trials and tribulations."
As Stephanie shared this, there was a corporate witness that God was challenging us with this question: " Are we willing to “re-orient ourselves towards victory?” In answer to this call, we stood together and physically turned to face the east and one by one, we each declared that we choose to turn away from the disappointment of the past and to re-orient ourselves towards victory, towards our Glorious and soon-coming King!
If this call resonates in your heart then you too can choose to re-orient yourself towards victory right now. Simply face the east and make this declaration “I {put your name} choose today to re-orient myself towards victory. I choose to close all the old doors and to turn my back on the disappointments and failures of the past season. Lord I turn my face with expectancy towards the east and I ask you to give me a greater revelation of you as the Glorious Ruling King. And as I do this, I believe that you will restore unto me the joy of my salvation, that spiritual force that comes from knowing that in every circumstance of My life You are sovereign. In Jesus name, Amen!”
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!
As a final act of the gathering, the Lord had instructed us that He wanted a declaration made over the Gen X. The fathers and mothers positioned themselves on one side of the Alberta map with the Gen X standing on the other 3 sides. Then the fathers and mothers acknowledged that God is raising the Gen X to be part of the company of leaders entrusted to carry His heart for Alberta by giving us several ‘charges” (even as Paul did to his spiritual son Timothy in 2 Timothy 4) from the wisdom they have gleaned through their many years of ministry.
Rick shared first:
“One day I had been doing my fast and it had been relatively uneventful. I was about to go to bed at 11:30 when I saw my 14 year old son was still up and I told him to stop gaming and go to bed. 'Yes dad,' he answered. I then woke up at 3:00 am only to find the lights on downstairs and someone still gaming. We had some 'insightful dialogue' and I chased him verbally to bed. I tried to go back to sleep but instead I lay there stewing 'Why can’t he listen to me? I don’t understand.' "
And in the midst of this, the finger of God came and touched something in my heart.
'Thirty years ago ,' He began, 'revival touched something in your heart. And because of that you have placed it above everything else. It was so deep in you that you used it as a measuring stick. If someone/something would bring you closer to that goal, you would embrace them. And if not, you would make them secondary.'
And I realized I had done this with everything in my life. And this deep sense of grief and sorrow came over my heart. The next morning when I was waking up out of sleep I heard the Lord say: 'The highest name I give myself and the foundation stone of reality is 'Father.' When God wanted to fully explain and express Himself He sent forth His son who fully explained His Father. That’s the highest manifestation/revelation of God. It’s that of Father. We hold him as King and that is His position – but as to His person and His Presence, it is Father.
The day after this experience, I woke up from a dream where we had to burst through an old foundation that was cement. And the last image I saw before waking up was a jumble and tumble of cement with re-bar sticking out. And I had a sense that 'We did it.' And somehow, in some way, I believe the heart of what we will walk out is that the Father will reveal Himself in a fresh new way and that will help us understand ourselves as true sons and daughters of the King.
There is a great movie called ' Kingdom of Heaven.' It’s about a young man whose father is a baron but he had a tryst with a maid and so the illegitimate son was born. The father comes and finds him and rescues him, but in so doing, the father is killed. Just before dies, he commissions his son by passing over the symbol of his authority and his ownership, which is his sword. Then later the son repeats the same process with others who are fighting to defend Jerusalem.
We feel there is a sword the Lord has given us - His word, His precious promises, that we’ve been walking in and in so doing they have produced divine nature in us. And what we want to do is take from our life and commission and challenge you and say 'If you will take this from our lives, it will help you to fulfill all that God has put in you and that we have prayed for. Because we recognize you are the fruit of our labours and prayers. And as we have cried out and others like us, God has brought you here for such a time as this. You have come into the kingdom for such a time of this. This isn’t a passing of a baton, this is simply out of our own life, we want to give you these instructions as Paul wrote to Timothy so that you in turn can find other faithful ones and give them instructions as well. And together we will see the Lord gain His glory that His name might be renowned and held in fear and awe in this place and space that He has given us to establish His kingdom.' "
So before God and His elect angels, because I believe the balustrades of heaven are crowded now and the angelic hosts and the saints who have laid down their lives are all watching. And the enemy is watching too and I hope it brings fear in him because God is shifting something. So I want to say to you, please, out of what God has shown me, never never never put vision above people. Take deeply the passion, take deeply the vision God puts in you but realize people are the vision. God’s kingdom and his people are the vision. It’s always about that and if you do that your burden will be light and God will add strength and speed to your feet."
Mark shared secondly:
“You all remember when Jesus was baptized and the most significant thing that happened was a voice that came from heaven saying: “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” And just as the greatest revelation about God is as a Father, the greatest revelation we can have about ourselves is of our identity as sons and daughters. Jesus heard the heavenly voice and so did the people around him. And what happened next? He went to the wilderness and was tempted by the enemy in what? His identity. 'If you really are the son of God, if you are…' But he knew that He didn’t have to prove a thing, He knew exactly who he was. And I speak over you tonight, your identity first and foremost as sons and daughters of the living God. And the voice of heaven speaks over you tonight, this is my beloved son and this is my beloved daughter in whom I’m well pleased.”
And secondly I give this charge to you. It’s an obscure thing that Paul says in Colossians at the end of his letter: 'Tell Archippus: Make sure you complete the work you have received in the Lord.' So I give you this charge as well: Make sure you complete the work you have received in the Lord. As Paul said: ' I wasn’t disobedient to the heavenly vision.' It has to be a heavenly, vision, a work in the Lord. Whatever it is, raising your kids, preaching the gospel – make sure it’s in the Lord and make sure you complete it. Many of you have received the work of the Lord, the call many many years ago but the charge is still there to you make sure you complete the work you received from the Lord.”
Thirdly Jim shared:
“In my life it hasn’t been so much sacrificing people for vision but the opposite: The desire to perform for people. Keeping in mind what Rick said, I would strongly urge you: Don’t perform for others, for what people expect of you, what your parents expect of you – listen to what God says. I urge you in connection with this to embrace humility and obedience. The thing I have done since the first day in my ministry in 1982 – is to pray for humility and wisdom every day. And I encourage you to pray for those two things and you know God will answer that. You may not like the way he answers the 'humility' part, but remember it is in these times you will learn the wisdom that you need.”
Danyele was the fourth one to speak:
“One of the things that I would say to you is 'endure hardship as a good soldier.' Don’t bow to pressure or circumstances, don’t bow to the right or the left or to the sound of the enemy. Don’t bow to enemy, don’t bow to anything but your Lord! Bottom line: It is about the will of God. Do what is right in the sight of the Lord. Every time you are to make a decision – if you are tempted to be angry, ask yourself 'is this right in the sight of the Lord?' Put Him first and you won’t become a man pleaser and you won’t’ fear man.
And the word of the Lord says, Jesus said, “I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me not to do my own will. In 2 Cor 10:5 in the Message Bible, it says “fitting every loose thought, every emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ.” What is that structure? He did the will of the Lord. So as a good soldier, endure hardship because the kingdom call is about being a good soldier. Be totally committed and consecrated to that – lay down your life for your King. If you do that first God will honour it.”
After Danyele, Brenda (from the national team of Women’s Aglow) spoke as the fith speaker:
“I would charge you that obedience is better than sacrifice. It is a broken and contrite heart that God will not despise. It’s ok to be broken. And the last thing, because I’ve overcome people pleasing in my life, this is who He esteems: He who fears and trembles at His word.”
And finally Barb shared:
“A word that came to me today is Isaiah 50:7 - I have set my face like flint. Because of the things I have had to overcome personally and in ministry that has had to be built in me. But it was from God. God did it and I didn’t have to work it up. So my word to you is perseverance. We are overcomers. Set your face like flint to the call God has on your life. God will be more than enough for each one of you."
As they completed these charges to the Gen X, the fathers made this declaration from one generation to another: “Because He is, we can. And we are standing before you saying: ' Yes you can, Son. Yes you can, Daughter. Rise up, yes you can! Despite circumstances, rise up, yes you can! Because He is, yes you can. And your response is 'yes we can!' "
Then they took a large sword that they were holding in their hands and passed it across the map into the hands of the Gen Xers.
The Gen X responded saying, “We feel so humbled and honoured to be here. We’ve heard 'take the baton and run' and how many times have we felt we do want to run, but not alone. We think of the verse in Malachi 4 – the hearts of the fathers will turn to the sons and then the hearts of the sons will turn to the fathers. And there is a promise that goes with that, a blessing. So we say: 'We receive your wisdom, we receive your wise counsel and take it to heart. We will be found as 2 Timothy says, as faithful men and women who receive it and pass it on to other faithful men and women. That is our commitment and we will endeavour to do by the grace of God through faith.'
It’s important also for us to say we understand that we have left you for a long time carrying the sword alone. And tonight as we stand here, we say 'No more.' No more will we stand as critics, in judgment, pointing the finger and saying 'You should make it a better church.' We are going to stand alongside you, even as you have invited us to. Because it’s our church, not your church, it’s our church. It’s our province. And you are not going to labour alone. We are going to lift up your arms, you will lift up our arms and together we will run like the wind.”
As a final act we gathered all the children and Millenials (Generation Y) and asked them to stand inside the circle that had been created by the Gen X and fathers and mothers standing together. The kids, ages 5-12, had spent the whole gathering in a special kids equipping school where they had been learning about waking up spiritually, how to hear God, what does it mean to live in the kingdom and how do we walk as one body and one family. And that very night, they had learned about the righteous foundations of the province and about the righteous seeds in the ground and about how we need to call those seeds to life. So as we stood together, representing all the generations (Builders, Boomers, Gen X, Millenials and even the little kids of whom we don’t even know the name of their generation yet!) we leaned over the map of Alberta and shouted for the righteous seeds, planted by the generations that have gone before us, to WAKE UP!!!
The Call
In the beginning God had a dream: of a family and a home. Starting from Adam and Eve and throughout the millennia of human history that followed, the enemy sought to destroy this dream by separating mankind from the Father and dividing the family one from another. But with deliberate determination, God continued, generation after generation, to restore His family, healing the divisions between races, classes, denominations and gender.
And now the fullness of time has come for yet another important restoration – bringing the generations into one.
Because God foreknew what He was longing to do at this time in history, in His wisdom He fashioned and positioned a generation to be the bridge through which He could link all the generations. This generation, known as Generation X (born circa 1965 to 1979), carry within their hearts the God-given dream of the Church, not as an institution, but as a family, united in intimate fellowship with the Father and filled with such an unconditional love one for another that it will become a homing beacon for a lost and dying world.
The enemy, again attempting to abort the timing of God’s purposes, has tried to wound and offend Gen X through years of rejection and misunderstandings with the older generation. Sadly today many Gen Xers either live in self-imposed exile, disconnected from the rest of the Church or have abandoned the faith entirely.
But God has not left Himself without a witness in Gen X – a remnant who has refused to bow to the enemy’s wicked plan and who has fought to stay connected, waiting for the day when God would release them into their mandate as the bridge.
We believe this hour has finally come and the Lord God is now sounding a trumpet call to the faithful remnant of Gen Xers everywhere to rise up and stand together to receive their marching orders from the King, for the sake of their generation and for the fulfillment of God’s purposes for all the generations.
The 1-2-3 March gathering will take place in Edmonton, Alberta beginning at 7:00 p.m. March 1 and continuing until 10:00 p.m. March 3. The gathering is open to all believers who carry a heart to see the generations united. Together as one family we will worship and wait on the Lord until He releases His orders for the mobilization of Gen X, so that the bridge might be established for the blessing and breakthrough of the whole body. The gathering will be facilitated by a team of recognized senior spiritual fathers and mothers, as well as Gen X leaders, from across Alberta. More details concerning venue, registration etc. will be released in the next few weeks.
We look forward to gathering in Edmonton with all those whom the Lord is releasing to carry this mandate to see the generations restored in this hour.
The Alberta Project Team
March 1-3, 2012, a remnant of believers from every generation answered a call from the Lord to gather in Edmonton to begin a mobilization of Gen Xers (born c. 1965-1979).
As we began the gathering entering into the presence of the Lord together, the Lord invited us to “come away with Him. As we continued to release our spirits, a clear declaration from the Spirit came through the worship team.
What have we here? A flower here…a flower there? What have we here? Snow is melting and flowers are blooming everywhere. See.see.. flowers are blooming everywhere, see with My eyes!
For the winter has passed and springtime is here, what have we here? See with My eyes, .flowers here and flowers there, blooming everywhere..it’s blooming everywhere...blooming everywhere...
Winter has passed, springtime is here, the birds are singing, flowers are blooming, And I want to hear one thing, I want to hear one thing in this hour and it’s your voice, it’s your voice I want to hear your voice! I want to hear your voice, come out of hiding. Springtime is here and I want to hear your voice...sing for me, sing for me!
For the next hour, the Lord continued to send wave upon wave of warm winds of His Spirit blowing over our frozen hearts, coaxing us to life again. To hope again. To believe again. To sing to Him. It was a foundation for all that would follow.
Listen: Winter Has Passed (right click on link to download file) or play here
The next morning, we felt to take “family time” together to discuss the previous evening and practice our corporate discernment. Discernment simply means to be able to recognize the voice of God – when we hear something our spirit “witnesses” that what is being said or what is happening is from God. So corporate discernment means when God is moving in a group setting, there is an agreement among those present of what the Lord is saying/doing.
So people were invited to share anything the Lord spoke or revealed to them (through pictures, scriptures, impressions, words from the Lord) during Thursday night’s worship. So as we each shared our piece of the puzzle, a fuller picture could be seen of what the Lord is saying or directing us to do.
Here are some of the themes that emerged:
Listen: Family Time (right click to download file) or play here
As we entered into the worship Friday afternoon, the Spirit centered us around Ephesians 4:4-6. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Then the worship team began to prophetically sing:
There is just one DNA, just one DNA, just one kingdom, just one way. There is just one DNA, there is just one Kingdom, and we will respond to only one, we will respond to only one. We will respond to only one – we will yield to only one – we will yield to only one. We will bow our knee to only one. We will be covered by only one. Only one, only one, only one, I am that I am. I am that I am.
As we continued to worship, dancing and rejoicing spontaneously broke out and people flooded the altar picking up flowers and boughs of cherry blossoms from décor and creating a “tunnel of spring” through which many marched and sang .
If we truly want to see His kingdom come and His will be done, then we cannot build any longer on foundations that are filled with the wisdom or plans of man. There can be only one DNA, His DNA in His Church. God is looking for a remnant, a critical mass who are willing to lay down their own ideas and agendas and surrender fully to His will, seeking His face and refusing to move unless God speaks. In this way we can become the “high-grade plutonium’ at the centre of the bomb the Lord wants to send against the enemy strongholds.
Listen: One DNA- worship (right click on link to download file) or play here
Listen: One DNA - message (right click on link to download file) or play here
As the Friday evening meeting began, the team felt the fathers and mothers were to stand onstage behind the worship team (Gen Xers and Millenials) to make a statement in the Spirit that the older generation is covering the younger and prepared to follow them as they follow the Lord. As this happened there was a perceptible shift in the atmosphere and a spirit of joy and safety pervaded the room as we began to worship.
As the worship entered into its second hour, suddenly a cry came forth, like a distant wailing from one of the worship team. A strong spirit of travail descended and all the Gen X present moved into travailing worship as the older generations surrounded them covering and protecting. After an intense time of pressing in, there was a breakthrough from which a spirit of militancy arose. “Arise! Arise! 1-2 3 March!” the command rang out from the Lord through the worship team Immediately clusters of generations grabbed each other’s arms and began marching together around the room, prophetically responding to the Lord’s call to align ourselves as One Body under One Head.
Listen: 123 March! (right click on link to download file) or play here
The birthing travail of the previous evening prepared the ground for the Lord to begin to deal the heart of Gen X. Gen X (born c.1965-1979) have a divine destiny as an intergenerational bridge and a deep longing to see the Church restored to God’s original intent: not as a vision-driven corporation but a family, united in intimate fellowship with the Father and filled with such unconditional love one for another that we become a homing beacon for a lost and dying world.
Many Gen Xers have tried to walk relationally in function-based ministry and they experienced rejection and wounding. Disillusioned and wearied, they retreated into a self -imposed exile, physically and/or emotionally disconnecting from the rest of the body. They love God, but they refuse to darken the door of a church. Still others abandoned the faith entirely.
But God wanted Gen X to know that the suffering and pain many had experienced in church systems and the delay in being released was not for their destruction, but for their perfecting. God in his mercy has been seeking to refine and prepare Gen X to be the broken leaders He needs in His kingdom in this hour. So the biggest issue hindering the Gen Xers from being fully released is not their suffering or brokenness, it’s how they responded to it. Many Gen Xers used suffering as a justification for “abandoning ship” – leaving churches, isolating and separating themselves from the Body. As such they have been “absent without leave” from the army – leaving due to pain and disillusionment and not the command of the Lord. And instead of using the vision God gave them, of the church as a family not an institution, to fuel their intercession, instead they became judgmental, critical and accusatory, especially towards the older generation leadership.
So God revealed that the key issue for Gen X being released is to acknowledge that they have sinned against God, first and foremost and that He is looking for a remnant, with a different spirit. Those who are willing to stand in the gap and repent for this “falling away” in their generation so that they might be restored into right alignment with God and take their place as the bridge between the generations that God has intended them to be.
The Gen X responded with deep hearts of repentance after which they released a call with one voice to the rest of their generation. “Hear the word of the Lord, Gen X – Come let us return to the Lord, He has torn us to piece but He will heal us, He has injured us but he will bind up our wounds”
Listen: The Destiny of Gen X (right click on link to download file) or play here
After the morning repentance, the Gen X met together over lunch and the Lord witnessed to our hearts about the importance of restoring honour to the fathers. Honour is a deep spiritual principle and the culture of honour was ripped from the foundation of Western society in the rebellion of the 1960s.
There are many faithful boomers and builders – forerunning visionaries whose hearts yearn for the presence of God and who have sacrificed much to prepare a resting place for the Lord. Many were touched at a young age in the culture-shaking Jesus movement and from this they carried dreams and promises from the Lord. But then years of “desert wandering” ensued during which they had to remain faithful in the “desert” of religious systems that demanded performance and elevated human measures of success (how many people are in your congregation, the size of your budget) above pleasing God and experiencing His glory. Years of “swimming upstream” like this has brought a kind of hopeless and resignation to their hearts.
So the Lord prompted Gen Xers that the first act He wanted them to do collectively as a generation was to restore hope and honour to these fathers and mothers. So each gen Xer took a spring flower (the room had been decorated with many spring flowers) and prophetically presented it to someone from the older generation as they sang to them:
Come away with me, come away with me
It’s never too late, it’s not too late, it’s not too late for
God has a plan for us, God has a plan for us
It’s gonna be wild, it’s gonna be great
It’s going to be full of Him
The resting presence and favour of God enveloped the room during this beautiful time of healing and blessing between the generations that was sealed by us taking communion together – thanking the Lord for His blood that was shed and body that was broken to restore His dream of a true family and a home.
Listen: Lord You're Beautiful- worship (right click on link to download file) or play here
Listen: Restoring Honour to the Fathers (right click on link to download file) or play here