Removing The Delay

There are many different passages of scripture that challenge me in different areas but there is one in particular that has captured my attention at this time. It is the account of Daniel praying and asking God to move in Daniel 10:12-14. As I read it, Daniel was praying to God for 21 days for an answer to a specific situation. Finally after 21 days the answer arrives and with it, the reason for the delay. The angel delivering the answer informs David that his request had been heard and the answer dispatched on the very first day that Daniel began to pray. Due to resistance in the heavenlies however, the answer had been delayed in arriving on earth. For 21 days the angel tasked with delivering God’s answer had been engaged in a spiritual battle that had kept him from being able to deliver the answer. Finally, additional heavenly forces arrived and the angel was able to deliver the answer that had been sent out 21 days earlier.

What challenges me about this particular passage is the reality that because of resistance in the heavenlies there was a delay in God’s answer arriving on earth. God’s answer to prayer did not arrive when it should have because of spiritual resistance that delayed its arrival. If resistance in the heavenlies could exist then and hold up God’s answer for 21 days, it is absolutely possible that there is resistance in the heavenlies today which is still causing a delay in God’s answers arriving on earth. If this is true then it accounts for many of the situations where we pray, “on earth as it is heaven” (Matthew 6:10), and then there seems to be a delay is realizing this answer (we are still waiting for many answers).

This could also give us some insight into why it is that God seems to move so powerfully in some areas and not in others. It could be that the saints of a particular region have cleared the heavenlies of resistance, Open Heavens, and cooperated with God in creating a space where there is an unhindered flow of requests and praise heavenward and answers and provision earthward. Instead of God’s answers being delayed by resistance in the heavenlies they are delivered in the manner and time that God desires.

This does much more than give me food for thought. It prompts me to action. I believe that one of the Kingdom principles that we can learn from this account in Daniel is that we must work to open the heavens and remove any hindrances to God’s answer being delivered. This same idea is conveyed again in Isaiah 57:14 where we are told to go out and ‘remove obstacles and hindrance’ so that the work of God can be carried out freely.

We do not have the ability to answer prayer but we do have the ability to clear or clutter the heavenlies. Our prayers and obedience can serve to remove the resistance over our region ensuring the timely delivery of God’s answers while inversely, our lack of prayer or obedience can further clutter the heavens and only add to the delay. Let us commit to living under Open Heavens where there is no delay between God’s answer being dispatched from heaven and delivered to earth.

We Stand On Guard!

I’m in Ottawa with our Master’s Commission students and we are staying at the National House of Prayer (www.nhop.ca). We just returned from a prayer walk tour and Parliament hill and it was simply amazing. I hesitate to say ‘life changing’ because that has become a far too frequently stated declaration that often fails to live up to its promise but it was an incredibly significant day.

During our day; we stood on a hill overlooking the Parliament buildings and prayed the 10 commandments over our Government and Nation, we joined arms and walked across the bridge into Quebec while praying for unity in our Nation, we gathered in the room where the media interacts with the MP’s after question period and prayed for there to be a truth & clarity of message in the media, and we sat in the gallery during question period. The tradition, history and architecture of Parliament and our Nation are breathtaking in themselves but when we recognize the Hand of God and purposes of God in the founding of our Nation it literally comes alive.

The powerful prayer and declaration that is woven into our National Anthem – “God keep our land glorious and free” and “O Canada, we stand on guard for Thee” have always held great significance for me but the events of today have only served to increase that. As we sat on the steps of the National House of Prayer and Pastor Craig led us in a debriefing of the days events one of the students summed it up well with these words, “I was reminded today of the incredible responsibility we have to pray for our Nation”. I don’t think truer words have ever been spoken. As Canadians and citizens of the Kingdom, we have the wonderful privilege and weighty responsibility of standing for our Nation. In Ezekiel 22:30 God looks out across a Nation for those who would accept this responsibility, for those who would stand in the gap and rebuild the walls of righteousness that protect a Nation. I love the passion that our church family continues to show for our Nation, and the acceptance of our responsibility to this end but it is my prayer that this would be increased. That from the west coast of our Nation there would rise a concerted chorus of prayer that the righteous foundations of our Nation and the prophetic promise over our Nation would be reaffirmed and realized.

Earth Day

Tomorrow has been designated 'Earth Day'. This is the day that we are supposed to think about ways to improve the world. Many will celebrate various environmental efforts and there will be a renewed push to live 'green'. People will discuss ways to save everything from trees to seals and spotted owls (pretty much anything other than humans). There will be a collective patting ourselves on the back for the way we have improved the world with our little blue boxes, but it won't last long because we have to move quickly on to the wringing of hands due to global warming (thank you Al Gore!).


I am all in favour of a healthy environment but I think that as a Christian my approach to Earth Day should be significantly different than those who don't know Jesus as their Saviour. I think that this should be a day when I reaffirm my commitment to live a life restoring the dominion of God to our world (Genesis 1:26-28). It should be a day when I reaffirm my readiness to go into all the earth and proclaim the message of the Kingdom (Matthew 28:19,20). It should be a day when I walk with a renewed humility and dependance on God and seek His healing of our land (2 Chronicles 7:14).

For me the greatest earth day would be when Christians affirm and express Father's love for the sick, the hurting, the oppressed, the captives, the refugees and the enslaved. I don't think the earth is best served when we elevate its importance above the importance of those who the earth was created for -- humankind.

Responding to God

As we discuss learning to hear the voice of God over these weeks there is a key issue that will dramatically affect our ability to ‘hear’. The more we embrace this truth, the clearer and easier we will hear God speaking to us and, the more we resist this the harder it becomes to hear God. Jesus introduces us to this issue in John 10:2-5 when He says in v. 3, ‘…the sheep (that’s you and me) hear His voice and come to Him…” It is the 2nd part of this statement that holds the answer to our continued, and developing, recognition of God’s voice -- our response to the message.
The more we respond in obedience to God’s voice the easier it is to hear His voice. The more we resist, or rationalize away, His message the harder it gets to hear Him speaking to us. This is not because Jesus has gotten frustrated and stopped speaking to us but because our disobedience has erected a barrier in our lives, which only serves to deaden our hearing. Our desire to hear God’s voice must be coupled with a commitment to respond in obedience to His voice. When these two characteristics are present in our lives we will walk with the sound of His voice in our ears and the blessing of His hand on our lives.
This issue of responding to the message of God is vital in both our personal and corporate expressions of faith. Not only must we each individually respond to God’s message, but our church family must collectively respond to what God says to us. We must be willing, and committed, to walk forward in the unfolding plan of God (“…there is so much more I want to tell you – John 16:12) for us and, our church family.
A few weeks ago I mentioned what leadership believes to be the message of God to our House that came out of our Klesis conference earlier this year. While the individual messages were all anointed and instructive, and everyone in attendance probably received personal words from the Lord, we believe that there were two specific messages that God had for our entire family, not just those in attendance. The two things we believe He said to us were:
1. More freely, and boldly, declare what God has called our House to.
2. More intentionally step into what God has called our House to.
We know, and have expressed often, the amazing call of God on this House – to be an equipping centre, a sending station, a regional church, a resourcing church and, a rescue mission. As each month goes by we continue to see victories and fruitfulness in these areas. We have family members going and coming on missions trips. We have people whose lives are being freed from addictions and restored to wholeness. We regularly receive opportunities to bless other churches and individuals out of the blessings God has given us and the list goes on. Yet while we rejoice in the victories and fruitfulness that we have seen we know there is much more that God has in store for us. While we certainly don’t claim to fully understand the implications and scope of this call, we also know that we are not to hold our understanding ahead of our embracing and obedience in responding to this call.
At this time of focusing on hearing God’s voice I want to encourage everyone in our church family, in both campuses, to enhance their hearing sure there is both personal and corporate responding to the message of God. That we are individually, and collectively, embracing and participating in what God has called us to. Let’s ensure that our hearing only improves as we faithfully respond to what God speaks to us about.