A Marriage is coming to Canada
April 28, 2005

The Vision
A number of years ago, the Lord gave me a dramatic picture of His desire for English and French Canada. I was driving in Vancouver and as my eyes wandered to the license plate of the car ahead of me, it suddenly changed. I saw interlocking wedding rings on one side and the words "I do" on the other. Tears came to my eyes so fast that I had to pull over and when I did, the Holy Spirit said, "David, this is My desire for English and French Canada. The day is coming when there will be a wedding in Quebec. And English Canada and French Canada will marry one another and marry the land. And they will call Canada home. David, many Canadians live in Canada, but they don’t call Canada home."

And the Lord showed me that at this time, a representation from the church in England and the church of France will be present at the wedding. And like all good parents, they will cut the ties and say "Church of Canada, we release you to your own unique destiny for which the Lord is calling you."

A Holy Matrimony
Since I was born and educated in Egypt, I had no idea about the history of Canadian Confederation. Imagine my surprise when a few years ago, information began to emerge that the Fathers of Confederation had used the analogy of a marriage to describe the formation of Canada.

George Brown, who was one of the chief proponents of Confederation, wrote a letter from the first Confederation discussions in Charlottetown in 1864 in which he said:

Cartier and I made eloquent speeches -- of course -- and whether as the result of our eloquence or of the goodness of our champagne, the ice became completely broken, the tongues of the delegates wagged merrily, and the banns of matrimony between all the Provinces of BNA having been formally proclaimed and all manner of persons duly warned their [sic] and then to speak or forever after to hold their tongues -- no man appeared to forbid the banns and the union was thereupon formally completed and proclaimed!

A few years later, Sir John A McDonald, our first Prime Minister, writing to another father of Confederation, Charles Fisher, on May 30, 1867, said:

“So you see, my dear Fisher, we are about to be united in Holy Matrimony this first of July”.

I believe that it is no accident that our forefathers used the analogy of a marriage to describe the formation of the nation of Canada. God is leading us full circle back to the original foundations of our nation to re-establish this covenant for His purposes. And as this covenant happens, I believe that something will be healed in our identity as a nation that will release us to a new level of fulfilling God’s purposes.

The Search for Identity
Knowing your identity is a key to being able to receive your rightful inheritance. For example, knowing that we are joint-heirs with Christ opens to us a whole realm of blessing that we can appropriate as a son or daughter of God.

Canadians have long struggled with the issue of identity. I believe this is in part because of the centuries-old English/French division that was brought to our nation by our founders. However, I believe that from this seemingly negative beginning (the conflict between the French and English) God's intent was to use Canada as a place to unify these once-bitter rivals into one, as a sign and a wonder to all. But for this new union to be truly effective, there has to be a leaving of the parents and a cleaving together so there can be a release of the unique destiny for this nation. This has not yet happened but I believe this summer, we as Canadians will receive this blessing from our parents (England and France) and we will be released to find our own expression of whom we were meant to be.

I believe the Lord released another key to our identity when He said, “Canadians live in Canada but they don’t call Canada home”. Because Canada has welcomed millions of immigrants through the centuries and we have embraced multiculturalism as a core value of our nation, many people have retained strong ties to their original homelands and people groups. I believe this was also part of God’s plan so that when the glory of the Lord comes to Canada, we will be a national of prepared missionaries, able to take revival to the four corners of the earth.

But before we can be sent out from Canada, we must become true sons and daughters of Canada.

No longer will they call you Deserted, or name your land Desolate.
But you will be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah;
for the LORD will take delight in you, and your land will be married.
As a young man marries a maiden, so will your sons marry you;
as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you. Isaiah 62:4-5

While this scripture speaks of Jerusalem and Israel, I believe the same principles can be applied to any nation. When the favour and delight of the Lord is in a nation, it is time for the land to "be married”. And who marries the land? The sons and daughters who covenant with God to stand for the nation to do whatever it take to see its full destiny released.

Covenanting at One Heart
Though we don’t know exact details of how the Lord will lead us at the One Heart gathering, we sense there will be a number of covenants that will take place. We feel that, in accordance with the original vision, there will be a covenant of the French and English (British) descendents, witnessed by the parent nations of England and France, the Aboriginal Peoples and the other ethnos of Canada.

We also feel that in keeping with Isaiah 62, there will be a time when we, as the different people groups in Canada, commit ourselves as sons and daughters to God and to the land.

And finally, as we have said for many years, we will make a commitment to the Lord to use any authority that He grants us by our unity to see the Aboriginal peoples set free.

The Beginning Signs of Harvest
Although One Heart will not be the fullness of the unity we are longing for, it will be a seed. We will continue from glory to glory and faith to faith and we know unity will increase. But even with this first seed of unity, I believe a new measure of revelation about who Jesus really is will be shown to the world. And as the world encounters Jesus through His unified body, we will begin to see the first signs of the harvest as Jesus said:

May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. John 17:23

Guarding our Hearts
Although we know that God has spoken that at One Heart the victory will be assured, now more than ever we must remain on guard. I believe one major warfare we will encounter over the next few months, will be a warfare over identity. The enemy will attack us in one of two ways, either through insecurity or through presumption. Our safety from both attacks is simply to find our identity in Jesus and to walk as He did – in humility and servant hood.

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death- even death on a cross! Phil 2:5-8

Calling the Whole Nation
At the beginning of this year, the Lord spoke to us and said, “At One Heart, I am going to do a roll call of the whole nation”. We believe it is important that every town/city/region in the nation be represented as well as the many ethnic groups in Canada. For this reason, we extend the invitation to all believers from every tribe, colour, language, age, region of Canada to come to Quebec City, July 28-31 for the One Heart gathering.

Let us come to celebrate together and to give pleasure to His heart!