“For the sake of His Son the Lord wants to do something deep in us. And that’s what I believe He is saying to us: as you walk in obedience in these three days I’m about to birth something in this nation, you will see it. If you obey Me.”
David Demian paused as he surveyed the 100+ church leaders gathered before him.
Lord, it’s a miracle that all of these people are here, he thought, silently offering thanks.
No one had been sure when the planes would start flying again. It had been only one week since the unthinkable had happened - brutal terrorist attacks in America had leveled the Twin Towers in New York City. Reeling from shock and terrified of further attacks, Western nations had immediately suspended all air travel. One day passed, two days, three days… all quiet on the Western Front. Slowly, cautiously, sporadically the planes began returning to the skies. And among those brave enough to fly and patient enough to endure the hours now required to maneuver through hastily-concocted but understandably paranoid new airport security protocols were these Canadian church leaders. They had traveled from every nook and cranny of the nation to the rustic Green Bay Bible Camp nestled on the shores of Lake Okanagan, just outside of Kelowna.
Anyone who knew the circumstances of this gathering as well as David did would have understood his amazement. The Lord had first spoken to the Watchmen team about this leadership meeting early that year. So when a seat sale prodigiously appeared a few weeks later, an invitation was quickly sent out for a meeting to take place in the spring. No sooner had the email been sent when “it” happened.
He was sitting in his office, taking a quiet time with the Lord when all of sudden a vision opened before his eyes. He saw a wide plain and thousands upon thousands of eagles crouched, wings stretched, waiting to take flight. Then he heard a voice saying “if you order them now, they will fly but they will be tired. Wait for the wind so they can soar.”
Oh Lord, he groaned inwardly, You couldn’t show me this before I sent the email out?
Swallowing his pride, a second email was sent, canceling the first.
What this “wind” would be he had no idea. He assumed it was a metaphor – a spiritual wind that would come to prepare the hearts of the people somehow. He just hoped he would recognize it when it came.
But as it turns out the Lord was more literal than anyone could have imagined. A few months later, in May, 550 Canadians traveled on the Journey of Hope to Israel to “call forth ancient anointings for end time purposes”. No matter where they traveled - Caesarea, the Galilee, the Red Sea, Masada, Jerusalem – two things remained constant: the unbearable heat and the unbelievable wind. Even the tour guides were baffled.
“It’s never windy this time of the year in Israel” they had explained.
Returning from the tour, the Watchmen team had prayed together again and now they felt a green light from the Lord to call not only a leadership meeting but a national gathering that would follow immediately afterwards. For some reason, the Lord seemed to be favouring Kelowna as the meeting place. Talking with the local leaders, they compared calendars and found only one common date available in the early fall – the leadership meetings would start September 18, which as it turns out happened to be Rosh Hashanah.
“I believe the Lord is bringing us into a deep commitment and deep covenant, a new level of abandonment, David continued sharing with those assembled. “He wants to take us deeper into the pursuit of the oneness. We aren’t going to be one. We are going to be one in Him. There is a big difference. Let them be one in us that the world may believe. So our oneness comes out of intimacy with Him, out of being with Him. We are not looking for unity for the sake of unity. We’re looking for the unity that will please the Fathers’ heart.”
“I agree, David” Stacey Campbell added, “The more we desire Him, the deeper the levels of consecration that are required and the deeper the levels of commitment. And now we are coming to this place as the Canadian church to release authority, but to do that we have to be increasingly dependent on Him”.
People nodded in agreement and the room fell silent as everyone began to search their hearts. After a while, Ron Maclean, a pastor from Winnipeg, made his way to the front of the room where he knelt in front of his peers and began to repent.
“Father we acknowledge our pride. Dear God. Forgive us Lord. Break its hold. Break its power. Shatter the pride in this land, Oh Lord, shatter the pride in the church, oh God. ‘
As he cried out, the rest of the leaders prostrated themselves and the sound of weeping began filling the room.
“Father,“ Ron continued, “the pride of doing it in our strength, the pride of our own groups, the pride in our own ways. We ask you to break it Lord.
Father we ask in these days that you would grant humility to the leaders across this land of brokenness, of lowliness. We ask Lord that you would gather the humble from every corner. Draw them Lord. Break us oh God.”
And so it continued for 3 days. Sharing, repenting, weeping, praying, worshiping. Not always in the same order, but always with the same sober intensity.
“He is about to seal us in a covenant,” David began during the final meeting.
This is not a light thing we are entering in. So I want you to take it carefully. Don’t covenant in the Body if you’re not ready to lay down your life for the Body.”
Ruth Blight, a pastor from Vancouver, stepped forward, Bible in hand.
“In Ezekiel 37, the second part of that chapter, the prophet is commanded to take two sticks; on one is written the name Judah and the other is written the name Ephraim.
When they are joined together in the hand of the prophet, God makes them into one stick. Their unity is declared, created by the pulling together of those two sticks. And when they become one, they can’t be separated again. There can be no division once God has declared them to be one. And God says they will be My people and the world will know that I dwell among them.”
“What we are going to do is very simple,” David instructed. “We have cut sticks, one for each of us. We’re going to go outside to the fire pit where we will take communion and worship the Lord together. Then one by one we will lay down our sticks, representing our own lives, on the ground. The sticks will be bound together and the whole bundle will be placed in the fire – signifying our covenant: that until we see God’s glory coming back to this nation we will not let go, we will lay down our lives for one another and for God’s purposes to be fulfilled.
I know many fathers have cried for this land, paid the price.” David continued, “We are picking up the baton from those that went before us and one day, we will pass the baton to those that are coming.”
“But right now we are landing in the fullness of time. As Hebrews 12 speaks about such a cloud of witnesses - they all died in faith, not receiving the promise. But they were waiting to see what we are experiencing. Actually, I will not be presumptuous to say Father Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the cloud of witnesses are watching what is happening today.
Do you know why? Because once we finish the last leg of the race and we cross the finish line do you know what will happen? There will be cheering in the heavenlies from generations past because they all knew that they had been completed. So they are watching with us.
I believe the Lord is redeeming something very crucial today. Because without it, the glory cannot come, without it the blessings of God cannot come. It comes when the brethren dwell together in unity, in oneness, in harmony, in one accord.
With this charge ringing in their hearts, the leaders stepped outside the meeting room and came together at the outdoor fire pit. As the sticks were laid in the fire, they prayed a simple prayer of commitment and repeated the covenant of Ruth to Naomi
Where you go, I will go
Where you stay, I will stay
Your people will be my people
Your God My God
Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried.
May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me
As they left the fire pit, one by one they knelt down and blew into the fire, releasing the breath of God, God’s spirit within them, to fan the flames of God’s purposes for their nation.
To see a video clip of the covenant in Kelowna you can visit the Altar of Thankfulness video gallery by clicking here.
In September 2001, more than 100 Christian leaders from 48 cities across Canada met together for three days to seek the Lord before the Kelowna National Gathering. This meeting and the gathering which followed are captured in The Covenant video. For more information about how you can order The Covenant, please email resources@watchmen.org or write Watchmen Resources, PO Box 23125 Kelowna, BC V1X 7K7
No one had been sure when the planes would start flying again. It had been only one week since the unthinkable had happened - brutal terrorist attacks in America had leveled the Twin Towers in New York City. Reeling from shock and terrified of further attacks, Western nations had immediately suspended all air travel. One day passed, two days, three days… all quiet on the Western Front. Slowly, cautiously, sporadically the planes began returning to the skies. And among those brave enough to fly and patient enough to endure the hours now required to maneuver through hastily-concocted but understandably paranoid new airport security protocols were these Canadian church leaders. They had traveled from every nook and cranny of the nation to the rustic Green Bay Bible Camp nestled on the shores of Lake Okanagan, just outside of Kelowna.
“I believe the Lord is bringing us into a deep commitment and deep covenant, a new level of abandonment, David continued sharing with those assembled. “He wants to take us deeper into the pursuit of the oneness. We aren’t going to be one. We are going to be one in Him. There is a big difference. Let them be one in us that the world may believe. So our oneness comes out of intimacy with Him, out of being with Him. We are not looking for unity for the sake of unity. We’re looking for the unity that will please the Fathers’ heart.”
“Father,“ Ron continued, “the pride of doing it in our strength, the pride of our own groups, the pride in our own ways. We ask you to break it Lord. 
“What we are going to do is very simple,” David instructed. “We have cut sticks, one for each of us. We’re going to go outside to the fire pit where we will take communion and worship the Lord together. Then one by one we will lay down our sticks, representing our own lives, on the ground. The sticks will be bound together and the whole bundle will be placed in the fire – signifying our covenant: that until we see God’s glory coming back to this nation we will not let go, we will lay down our lives for one another and for God’s purposes to be fulfilled. 
