by David Damien: July 23 to September 13, 2007
In June I had the privilege of worshiping and waiting on the Lord with hundreds of leaders from Vancouver to Halifax in a series of regional gatherings. As we shared together, it was clear that this last year (specifically the Jewish year that began in September 2006) has been a hard one for many in the body of Christ. There has been a variety of attacks by the enemy: spiritual dullness, discouragement, hope deferred, physical sickness as well as confusion, offense and accusation to destroy relationships (the unity of the body). Yet through it all God has given an assurance that He has allowed these things to happen to test and purify our hearts as a preparation for a major shift that is coming. While we don’t know fully what the shift will look like, the heart of it is that the church we know today is about to be transformed into a church that manifests the kingdom of heaven, the way Jesus spoke about. This is what many of us have been longing and praying and fighting to see. And we all agreed that the time has come for to hope and to dream again.
Throughout this year the Lord has been using the story of Joshua and children of Israel crossing the river Jordan as a picture of where we are in the church of Canada right now. The tests we have been facing are like the circumcision at Gilgal (Joshua 5) only instead of a physical circumcision, God is circumcising our hearts (Romans 2:29). He is removing old patterns of religious thinking and systems of beliefs that aren’t founded on His word so that we can be prepared to receive new revelations about the Kingdom. And He is “rolling away the reproach of Egypt”, the shame that has come with the failures, hurts, wounds and disappointments of living in a church without the full manifestation of the true power of the Kingdom. God’s heart in this is to renew in us faith, a faith that will allow us to rise up to enter into the Promised Land and possess all of our inheritance.
I know for myself that after the intensity of this year, there is a great temptation to go into 'holiday mode' with my family, especially over the summer months. But since returning from the gatherings at the end of June, the Lord has been really impressing on me that the remaining months of the Jewish year are very significant (Rosh Hashanah is September 13). I got in contact with other leaders across the nation, and as we counseled together we came to an agreement that the Lord is calling the church of Canada to a special kind of consecration over these next months.
A Season of Alignment
This year has been a year of alignment. We feel the call to consecrate ourselves at this time is a simple one. We choose to position ourselves wholeheartedly before the Lord and ask Him to do whatever it takes to bring everything in our lives as individuals, families, churches, cities, provinces and as a nation – into alignment with the principles of the Kingdom He is seeking to establish on earth. We believe that our obedience to this call will open a window of grace over our lives for divine encounters with the Lord through which He will:
1) complete the process of the circumcision of our hearts by cutting away old structures and mindsets of the past season/wineskin so that we would be prepared to receive the new things the Lord has in store for the coming season.
2) roll away the reproach/shame of Egypt and heal us. After the circumcision, the Israelites had a period of healing before they were ready to take the Promised Land. This is a window of grace for healing and freedom from the wounds, hurts and disappointments of the past. God wants to quiet us with His love by revealing more of Himself to us, the Truth breaking the lies of the enemy that are keeping us trapped in persistent cycles of bondage/death in our lives.
3) give us a new impartation of faith and revelation of His strategy/blueprint for the coming shift. God wants to release fresh revelation (for e.g. through dreams and visions and supernatural encounters) of His counsels and purposes for this nation in the coming season and how He intends to establish His kingdom in the church of Canada in the pattern of the kingdom in heaven. We believe God wants to give us the full assurance of faith that the strongholds in our lives, churches, cities and nation are falling down and we are about to see a manifestation of God’s hand in our nation in a way we have never seen before.
The 9th of Av – A New Decree
For the last few weeks the Lord has been speaking to me that the 9th of Av (which occurs this year on July 23) is a significant date in this season. While I knew the 9th of Av was the day the temple was destroyed both times in Jewish history, I was amazed to find out that according to the Jewish tradition "On the ninth of Av it was decreed that our fathers should not enter the [Promised] Land (Mishnah Ta'anit 4:6).
With all the Lord is saying to us now about this being the time to enter the Promised Land we felt to begin the consecration on the 9th of Av (beginning at sunset July 23) and continue until Rosh Hashanah (ending at sunset September 13). We sense that the Lord is giving us (as a representation of the church of Canada) an opportunity through our choice to answer the call to consecration to make a corporate prophetic decree that the season of not entering is over and now is the time for us, by faith, to possess all the inheritance the Lord has for our lives and nation.
A Kingdom Pattern
We feel that even the way we approach this consecration is to be different as God seeks to teach us about the kingdom. For example, as we prayed about whether there was to be a fast called during this time, the Lord directed our attention to Matthew 15:10-11:
Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen and understand. What goes into a man's mouth does not make him 'unclean,' but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him 'unclean’.”
From this we felt the Lord was encouraging us that instead of focusing on just fasting food, He wants us to focus on fasting every thought, word, action or attitude that is not in alignment with the Kingdom. That doesn’t mean that He might not call us individually or as groups to times of fasting during this call. The most important thing is that each of us remains sensitive to hear the Lord and obey Him in each step He leads us to follow during this time.
Let us remember that the Kingdom is not about something we do, it’s about who we are. It’s about blurring the lines between the sacred and the secular - not separating who we are at church or in prayer times from who we are at home or in our office or when we’re out with our friends. The Kingdom is about living in a constant communion with the Lord throughout our daily lives and in fellowship with one another as much as possible.
For example when we think of gathering to seek the Lord most of us think of attending a prayer meeting. But wouldn’t it be amazing if we saw every opportunity when we gather with our friends as a chance to share our hearts about what the Lord is saying or doing in our lives? And then as the Lord leads us, maybe we would pray or worship or just speak words of God’s heart and love to one another. Jesus said where two or three of us gather in His name, there He is with us. As we allow the Lord to invade the ordinary moments of our lives with His presence, I believe we will begin to experience the Kingdom in a whole new dimension.
Staying ConnectedDuring the consecration call we will send out daily emails for all those who would like to receive them (they will also be posted on our website) so we can walk together in what the Lord is speaking to us. If you would like to receive these emails, click here to be taken there now. We also would love to hear from you what the Lord is showing you – visions, dreams, revelations, scriptures – so that together we can see the picture emerge of what God is speaking to the church of Canada for the next season. You can send an email with any of these to kingdom@watchmen.org or fill out the ‘sharing what you hear’ form on our website.
Singleness of Heart
Thank you for your heart to sacrificially walk in obedience to the Lord in this consecration season. May the Lord use this time to supernaturally knit our hearts together as one body as we position ourselves together before Him. And may the promise of Jeremiah be ours for the church of Canada:
They will be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them singleness of heart and action, so that they will always fear me for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me. I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and soul. Jeremiah 32:38-41
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