Inclining Our Ears  -
A Call to a Thirty-Day Fast 

The One Heart Gathering marked a significant transition for the church in Canada: we have crossed the river Jordan from a nation journeying in the desert to an army being mobilized to possess the Promised Land.  But we’ve never been this way before and this is why since One Heart we have been crying out to the Lord for a new level of revelation, a divine blueprint, His heavenly structure and strategy for the church in Canada in these days.

At the end of September, a group of about 40 leaders from across the nation met in Ottawa for three days to fast and seek the Lord.  During this time, the Lord began a process of setting in order by revealing some of the foundations He is looking to establish.  One of these foundations was the honouring of authority and establishing of right protocol.  As in the One Heart gathering, a representation of the First Peoples (First Nations, Inuit and Métis) took leadership to establish this foundation, because they have a deep understanding of honour and protocol that goes well beyond that of the Western or European mindsets. 

In a significant prophetic act, the First Peoples held the prayer mantle (that had been given to us by Chuck Pierce) like an archway and welcomed the rest of the leaders to walk through the “gate” of the First Peoples to enter the nation of Canada.  This was a powerful statement in the spirit realm as the First Peoples, as original gatekeepers of the land, carry a vested authority to open the spiritual gates in our nation.

I believe this prophetic act signaled an even greater level of corporate unity and authority beyond what was attained at One Heart.  As one of the Inuit leaders said to us, “If someone asks you ‘Who gave you the authority to do what you are doing here?’, say to them, ‘The First Peoples of Canada.'  And if they say ‘Who gave them the authority? Tell them, 'God did, when He established them as gatekeepers in this land'.

A Sound from Heaven

This is one example of how the Lord is beginning to reveal and establish a divine protocol for the  functioning of corporate body in the nation.  And I feel that another key is found in the story of the formation of the early church in Acts 2.

120 followers of Jesus were in the upper room seeking the Lord together.  Suddenly there was a sound of a great rush of a mighty wind and tongues of fire appeared and all were filled with the Holy Spirit.  They spilled out into the street, shouting in many different tongues.

Had I been Peter, I think I may have been tempted to try to impose order on what to my human mind would have appeared to be total chaos.  Everyone was shouting in different languages, no one was listening or interpreting what was said. And yet, the Bible shows us something very interesting:

Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Acts 2:5-8

Do you notice how even though there were many expressions (languages) there was one sound? It was the sound of God being praised and exalted.  So what appeared like disorder to the human mind was actually the sound of great unity in the spirit.  And more than this it was a such a supernatural sign and wonder that a little while later 3000 received Christ after Peter’s first simple sermon.

Unity Is Not Conformity

We, as human beings, enjoy uniformity.  All the books on our bookshelf shelf aligned the same way, our lawn cut evenly, dancers all dancing the same moves in the same rhythm.  There is a pleasure this uniformity brings to us.

But sometimes we confuse our enjoyment of uniformity with God’s idea of unity and we think that for there to be unity, everyone has to be conformed to the same image or action or expression.  But God has a very different picture of unity.  It is a picture of unity in diversity.

All Creation

I once heard someone say, “If you want to understand God’s idea of unity look at a forest: everything is completely different and unique and yet everything is in complete harmony.”   Another analogy Paul used was a body: many members, each with their own unique expression, functioning as one whole.

I believe in my heart that the early church was not the pinnacle of God’s expression of unity, but only the beginning. And I believe that just as the Lord birthed the corporate body in Acts through the release of a supernatural sound from heaven, there is a “sound from heaven” for which we need to contend today. I believe this sound is the sound of the voice of the Lord in a measure and clarity we have not heard before.

A few days ago I was praying about these things with some leaders and the Lord gave me a very clear picture of two silver trumpets.   I felt the Lord was showing me the two silver trumpets that were spoken about in Numbers 10.  These trumpets had two important functions:

for calling the community together and for having the camps set out. (Numbers 10:2)

They were trumpets that assembled and mobilized the army.

I believe the Lord has been blowing the trumpet of assembling for some time now.  But now we have come to a phase where it’s time for the camps to “set out”.  And I believe every member of the body will have the opportunity to be positioned and mobilized and released within the body in a way that has never been seen before.   

Contending

In the month of December, two significant gatherings will be taking place.  First in Ottawa from December 2-4 leaders from the First Peoples will gather.  This summit was initiated by the aboriginal leaders because they felt that to walk with integrity with the rest of the body of Christ in the nation, there are things they need to deal with between themselves that they might come as one voice of the gatekeepers of the land. 

A few days after this meeting, these First Peoples’ leaders will join with the rest of the leadership from across the nation in Canmore for 3 days of intensive seeking of the Lord for His divine blueprints and strategies for the nation.

This is a critical time in the history of the journey of the church in Canada.  As leaders, we feel the fear of the Lord that we will not be tempted to bring back the ark on a new cart (as David did in 1 Chronicles 13:7), not to fall into old patterns or even new strategies that are not birthed out of the spirit but from the mind and reason.  But rather that we would contend for a release of revelation, of the supernatural sound that will allow the Lord to mobilize His body in this nation in the way He wants.

A Fast to Incline the Ear

We feel that now, more than ever, we must incline our ears to hear what the Spirit of the Lord is saying to the church in our nation. We felt the Lord is calling us to a special 30-day fast for the month of November.  The picture we were given was that of a man trying to listen to a sound with a lot of noise and distraction all around.  As he tries to focus, he cups his hands around his ears, trying to block out the background noise.  The focus of this fast is to remove the clutter, the background noise, the busyness in our lives that hinders us from clearly hearing the still small voice of the Lord.  For each of us this will mean something different so we must each seek the Lord for how He wants us to fast in this period.