One of my friends recently shared with me how the Lord
spoke to her about entering into the Promise Gathering this
summer “swept in on a river of thankfulness”.
This phrase really resonated with my heart because it
captured what the Lord has been speaking to me about the Gathering.
As I shared in my last email, The
Summoning, I really believe that the Promise Gathering will
be as significant a milestone in our journey in the church in
Canada as the Winnipeg Gathering was 10 years ago.
July 1999 in Winnipeg represented a “crossing over”
– a time when God summoned a critical mass of believers
from throughout Canada to stand in the gap for our nation, humbling
ourselves, praying, seeking the face of the Lord and turning
from our wicked ways (repenting for the sin of anti-Semitism
in the nation and the state of the church). And as we
did, God heard from heaven and He turned His face towards us,
ushering Canada into a season of the favour of the Lord where
we have remained relatively safe and secure from the many calamities,
natural and manmade, that have been befallen our world in the
last decade.
July 2009 in Ottawa I believe there will be another significant
“crossing over”. Once again, the Lord is summoning
a critical mass of His body to stand in the gap on behalf of
the whole. Only this time we will not be weeping and lamenting
in order to avert judgment, but celebrating the Lord’s
goodness to us over the last 10 years and presenting ourselves
before the Lord to be commissioned into the next phase of our
journey as a nation. I believe as we please His heart by our
obedience to come into alignment with His purposes, we will
see the release of a measure of God’s supernatural authority
to the church that His Kingdom and spiritual government might
be established in the body of Christ in Canada as it is in Heaven.
An Altar of Thankfulness
As we come to this watershed in our journey and I reflect
back on the past decade, I find my heart echoing that of King
David in Psalm 107
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever.
Let the redeemed of the LORD say this--
those he redeemed from the hand of the foe…
Some became fools through their rebellious ways
and suffered affliction because of their iniquities.
They loathed all food
and drew near the gates of death.
Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble,
and he saved them from their distress.
He sent forth his word and healed them;
he rescued them from the grave.
Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for men.
Let them sacrifice thank offerings
and tell of his works with songs of joy. Psalm 107:1-2;
17-22
So as we stand on the threshold of this new phase of our journey,
I feel it is right that we seal the passing season with thankfulness
to the Lord for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for
us.
As we were praying about how to best do this, the Lord reminded
us of the story of Joshua and the children of Israel building
a memorial altar at Gilgal after they crossed through the Jordan
and into the Promised Land.
When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan,
the LORD said to Joshua, "Choose twelve men from among
the people, one from each tribe, and tell them to take up twelve
stones from the middle of the Jordan from right where the priests
stood and to carry them over with you and put them down at the
place where you stay tonight."
On the tenth day of the first month the people went up from
the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho.
And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken
out of the Jordan. He said to the Israelites, "In the future
when your descendants ask their fathers, 'What do these stones
mean?' tell them, 'Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.'
For the LORD your God dried up the Jordan before you until
you had crossed over. The LORD your God did to the Jordan just
what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us
until we had crossed over. He did this so that all the
peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is
powerful and so that you might always fear the LORD your God."
Joshua 4:1-3; 19-24
As we read this story, we felt that we too should build a memorial
altar to the Lord at this important time of crossing over into
the Promise. But rather than build a physical altar, we
will build a “virtual” one, composed of the “stones
of remembrance”, our stories and testimonies of the many
times the Lord met us at pivotal moments in the journey.
So for the next 12 weeks, each week we will release another
story, another “stone of remembrance” for this altar.
And as together we rehearse the stories of God’s
great faithfulness to us, I believe many of you will be stirred
to remember your own stories of how the Lord led you to be part
of this journey and how He met you along the way. I want
to encourage you to capture these testimonies in writing, in
song, in paintings/drawings, in video, and share them with us,
so that we can add them to this national memorial altar of thanksgiving
to the Lord. (More details on what to share and how you can
share it will be released in the first “stone of remembrance”
article this week).
Offerings of Thankfulness
As we were praying into the Promise Gathering, we felt
the Lord challenged us that He was not looking for people to
register their intent to come to the gathering in the normal
way and pay a fee for attending. Because the transition
that is about to happen is far deeper and far greater than any
one meeting or event.
I want to make this very clear: whether or not you attend
the gathering physically is a matter of obedience between you
and the Lord. If you are one of those He is summoning
to be part of the critical mass in Ottawa, then I want to encourage
you to set your heart now to be there and to persevere no matter
what obstacles the enemy may seem to put in your way. This
is a kairos time in the history of the church and our obedience
to the voice of the Lord now will have a greater impact on our
lives and destinies than ever before. So we must throw
off every weight and entangling sin and run with perseverance
the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus.
But beyond the actual gathering, I believe the Lord is looking
for each of us to register our intent with heaven to answer
His summons in this hour to enter into this new era of building
His kingdom with Him. And I feel one of the ways He wants us
to “register our intent” is by the sacrifice of
thank offerings to Him for the journey that we are about to
complete.
He who sacrifices thank offerings honors me, and he prepares
the way so that I may show him the salvation of God." Psalm
50:23
With all integrity and the fear of the Lord in my heart, I want
to charge you to each seek the Lord as to how and what He wants
you to sow into The Promise this summer, regardless of whether
or not you will be attending. The Lord may ask you to
sow once; He may ask you to sow every week for the next twelve
weeks. How much or how often you sow is not the point; what
matters is that the collective obedience of the many faithful
servants of the Lord across the nation, known and unknown, seen
and unseen, is the key that will unlock the pleasure of God
and by extension, the release and fulfillment of His purposes
this July. (Details on how you can sow can be found at
the end of this email.)
A Procession of Thankfulness
There is one final “strategy of thankfulness”
given to us by the Lord as a preparation for the gathering.
As I mentioned in an earlier article, late last year the
Lord began speaking to us about the stones that were brought
to Winnipeg in 1999 as a memorial of our repentance. (Click
here to read the full account of the stones). These stones
were a witness to the grace and mercy of the Lord as we “crossed
over” from judgment to favour. And now the Lord
has spoken to us that He wants these same stones to also be
a witness of the next transition this summer – as we begin
to experience a release of God’s authority to establish
His spiritual Kingdom in our nation. So as a prophetic
picture of our journey as a nation, the stones will be moved
by special procession from Winnipeg to Ottawa.
A team of leaders from throughout the nation will accompany
the stones in this procession of thankfulness, joined by whosoever
feels called in their heart to join with us. Our journey
will begin on July 18th where we will gather with the church
in Winnipeg for a night of celebration and thanksgiving. From
Winnipeg, we will travel to Thunder Bay on July 19th and Sault
Ste Marie on July 20th, having celebrations in both cities before
arriving in Ottawa late in the day on July 21st. The stones
will then be prepared for a processional into the Ottawa Civic
Centre the first night of the gathering, July 22nd.
More details on the Procession of Thankfulness and how you can
be a part of it will be released in the next few weeks.
I look forward to answering the summons of the Lord to gather
in Ottawa this summer with all of you whom the Lord is calling
to be there. Though I don’t know all what the Lord
will do in this time, I do have a tremendous faith in my spirit
that we are about to receive a greater revelation of the King
and a release of His heavenly strategies for the establishment
of His Kingdom in this nation that we love.
It is my privilege to walk with you.
All my love
Sowing
into the Promise
To sow a thank offering by credit card using our secure
server please go to https://watchmen.org/donation.asp.
Simply choose “The Promise” as your “giving
option”.
To sow by phone using a credit card, call our office at 250-807-2851
from Tuesday to Thursday 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. (Pacific Time)
To sow by cheque or money order, please mail to:
Watchmen for the Nations
PO Box 23125
Kelowna, BC
V1X 7K7
