I Attend the Gathering

By Lauren Lok

Over 2000 adults came from all over Canada to participate as delegates in this event and there were over 250 "children" under the age of 18. Once again in accordance with the Joel 2 scriptures, children and honeymoon couples needed to be a part of the Gathering and the Lord arranged for it to be so. The oldest attendee, one of the Fathers of Canada, was Pastor Bob Birch, aged 92 and the youngest member a few months, as well as 2 honeymoon couples who had returned to be part of the Gathering.

At the pre Gathering leaders meeting, (+- 150 leaders), we had decided that we would initiate nothing in the flesh, we knew why we were there but also knew that only God's goodness could produce the repentance desired that would bring the life required and would stay His hand of Judgment. A decision was made to wait on the Lord, if He did not respond by consuming the sacrifice, we would seek to have another Gathering within the next six months, but above all we would not let the flesh counterfeit the real thing.

On June 30th the first meeting, held in the evening was characterized in deep worship and intense consecration, worked by the Holy Spirit. On July the 1st which is Canada Day and this year coincided with the Jewish day of the 17th of Tammuz, the day on which both the temple of Solomon in 586 B.C. and the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D., and all sacrifices ceased, occurred. God had instructed that a memorial altar be erected of stones brought by each delegate. (The stories of the stones are remarkable and only God could have orchestrated it). I took a stone from the gardens of the Union Buildings in Pretoria and my daughter painted the South African flag on it.

More at the Gathering We met on the 1st of July at 8.30 a.m., our direction clear, to seek His face and wait on Him to bring about what He desired to do. During the morning each provincial flag was carried in followed by the delegates from that province (all the provinces were represented, once again orchestrated by the Lord), and presented to the Lord, The nations who had attended followed under the Christian flag, this was Canada's hour. When this was completed, under live T.V. coverage across the nation, there was deep worship and stillness before Him.

We broke for a half hour at 12 noon and reconvened, with no delegates having left, at 12.30pm. As we worshipped and waited and began calling on Him to give us grace not to "miss it", a lady took the microphone having just seen a vision of scales that were still tilted toward the judgment side with the repentance side being lighter and called on the delegates to deeply search their souls for secret sins. We waited some more when the Lord suddenly swept in with the most powerful, God initiated, divine repentance. It swept across the delegates and leaders powerfully with a deep wailing and weeping gripping our hearts.

At a certain time the Christian Jews were asked to come forward with their children (around 60 or so adults). One of the first nation leaders (a Canadian Indian), draped herself with the Israeli flag and asked forgiveness on behalf of Canada's people. There was deep weeping and repentance and the Jewish brothers and sisters were generous in their forgiveness as delegates began to go forward and weep on the shoulders of those standing in the front. When this time ended the adults went back to their seats and the Jewish children were asked to remain in front and all the gentle children were asked to come to the front and stand in front of the Jewish children, all the time there was deep weeping. Then an unknown little boy of 8 took the microphone and said "God have mercy on us we have blood on our hands".

It must be noted that, nothing was orchestrated by man, nobody was primed for action, we allowed the Spirit of God to implement things as He desired, with whom he desired, all we did was respond.

When this time had ceased, around 3pm all the pastors and their wives, as representative of the Gatekeepers of the nation, were asked to stand on the balcony that stretched around the stadium, as a wall of protection around the delegates and other leaders, (there was a shoulder to shoulder unbroken circle of pastors there). When this happened deep intercession was birthed and a calling forth to Canada and the nations that the Lord had brought there to come into their Divine Destiny as nations.

Thereafter, once again, as we waited on Him, he began to bring forth the dedication of the "living altar". One of the pastors took the microphone and said that as Paul in Romans 9 verse 3 would wish himself accursed for the sake of his brethren, he would stand before the Lord in the same way on behalf of Canada. Pastors, leaders and delegates from all over the stadium moved silently forward and stood with him. A deep collective cry rose to the Lord from a collective heart. (It was astonishing!) It was at this time we discerned that the sacrifice was consumed and the altar of living stones built and we could now move on to the physical altar. A prophetic word was brought by Emile Abadir saying that he had seen a vision of a hand holding a sword stretched out over Canada but another hand had reached out and grasped the wrist and had drawn it back. The Lord was giving a period of grace.

When this ended, we dedicated our stones and felt that the Lord, only now, was releasing us to build the physical altar. When we moved to build the altar it was 6pm. We had been in His Presence for 10 hours. During that time not a babe in arms, toddler, child, teenager, or adult had left the room except for the half hour break.

The Last Day - July 2, 1999 The following day the children came to share what the Lord had said to them.

One little 7 year old girl said that last year she had seen a vision of an apple flying through the air and landing in the sand. On the apple was a swaztika. A hand picked the apple up but then discarded it. Finally another hand picked it up and on the back of that hand was a picture/tattoo of the Canadian flag. Her entire church came to the Gathering because of that vision.

During the Gathering a boy of about 12 had a vision of a bridge being built that arched into the air. The bridge was in poor repair but there were people on either side, of which the middle was totally missing, building and repairing the bridge. When it was finally repaired the workers met in the middle and embraced. Then as he watched this joyful scene the Canadian flag formed at the base of the one side of the bridge and the Israeli flag at the base of the other side of the bridge. On the last day the Lord released high praise and the children were invited to serve communion, as the Lord has said that there is no time to wait for the children to be mature in years before they are released, but they must be released to work side by side with the adults now, all that is required is maturity. (Maturity in the Christian life is a deepening passion for Jesus and intimacy with God. The essence of maturity is to open ourselves to and receive and respond to His love.)

The Pastors and leaders had come together during the pre-gathering meeting, of the last morning of the Gathering, and worded very simple covenants for each province that was read out before the Lord to uphold unity, love and the worship God in Spirit and Truth

A covenant was read before the Lord between Jew and Gentile believer of love, consideration, co-operation and oneness within His body and affirmation of Israel as a nation within God's purposes. The Adults made a covenant with the children and the children with the adults, to respect uphold, protect, honour and release into His desires. The three Christian television networks made a covenant to uphold each other and work together and not in competition with each other.

A Fulfillment of the Lord's Purposes A week prior to the Gathering beginning, Emile had a word for what the Lord wanted to do at the Gathering, as you will see by the above report, and the word recorded below this is exactly what took place.

"I have a vision of the fire of God which will consume the sacrifice which will be offered in a historic event in the history of this nation. I see in the vision that many leaders will be under powerful conviction of the Holy Spirit. I will cause them to tear and weep and it will be a very specific hour (that this will happen). The human effort has no credit in this hour. Because I will pour out my spirit in a special way, each one will know that I am calling forth the whole church to repent. I see a very unique presence of the Lord.

The Lord is saying, "Pray for the leaders of the church in this nation, because I want to do something that has never happened before. I will break their hearts because if the don't do that I will judge them sooner or later'.

The Lord says; ' Prepare yourself and your heart because you will experience something very unique. Prepare your heart when you bring your stones bring your hearts.

Awake!' says the Lord