The Day the Dying Ceased

After the Lord spoke to us about calling Gen Xers to gather this August in Edmonton, we began to seek Him as to how He wanted us to prepare (and find the people who were to be invited).  He directed us to begin in Vancouver, meeting with Gen Xers at the church that Caleb and Rebecca attend.  This is a church with a strong legacy of intercession for the nation.  

To Caleb and Rebecca’s surprise as they began making a list of all the gen Xers to invite, they realized that there were more than 50 in their congregation. Even more interestingly, like so many Xers, they had never actually all met together as a generation.

The weekend we picked to go was something chosen very pragmatically – Robin is in university and we planned to go the first weekend after she finished her exams.  But it was not, as we turned out, without divine design.

We arrived Thursday to spend some time together as a team and Friday morning we had the opportunity to attend a prayer meeting at the senior pastor’s home.  This meeting has been going on for years and is attended by leaders and intercessors from the church, as well as pastors from other churches.  They graciously invited us to share and we explained that God had placed it on our hearts simply to honour them as a church for their faithful labour on behalf of God’s desires for Canada and for the impact it had on each of our lives personally.

After the meeting, one of the church leaders, Mei, (the wife of the senior pastor, who is really a co-pastor and incidentally, Caleb’s mom) pulled me (Stephanie) aside in the kitchen.  She said that while we were honouring them the Lord spoke to her about the Gen X.  He brought to her attention the scripture where Moses says, “If I have found favour in your eyes God…”  Most of us are familiar with this verse, from Exodus 33:13  “if I have found favour in your eyes, God, teach me Your ways.”  But the Lord reminded her that there was another instance of this prayer, where Moses made a very different request.  It is in Numbers 11.

^11-15 Moses said to God, “Why are you treating me this way? What did I ever do to you to deserve this? Did I conceive them? Was I their mother? So why dump the responsibility of this people on me? Why tell me to carry them around like a nursing mother, carry them all the way to the land you promised to their ancestors? Where am I supposed to get meat for all these people who are whining to me, ‘Give us meat; we want meat.’ I can’t do this by myself—it’s too much, all these people. If this is how you intend to treat me, do me a favor and kill me. I’ve seen enough; I’ve had enough. Let me out of here.” (Message Bible

And the Lord spoke to her and said, “this is how the Gen X feel.”  They are discouraged, they despair of ever being able to see what they are longing for and they feel like they would rather die than live in the pain of unfulfilled destiny.    But I want to shift them, to bring them to the place of hope, where they are ready to walk with Me and let Me show them My ways.”

As she shared this, I was reminded of something I had read a few weeks before while studying about Passover on a Jewish website.  In a list of Jewish holidays, I noticed that April 28, which was the Sunday we would be visiting Vancouver, was a minor holiday known as Lag B’Omer and was described like this.

Lag B’Omer literally means “the 33rd day of the Counting of the Omer,” the time period between the holidays of Passover and Shavuot. The Omer is the 49 days between the Jews’ emancipation from Egypt on Passover and the day the Torah was handed down at Mt. Sinai on Shavuot. Counting the Omer serves as a daily reminder that the Jews’ freedom wasn’t complete until the Torah was received. The first 32 days of the Omer are observed as a period of partial mourning, but on the 33rd day, the ban on celebration is lifted.* On this day, we commemorate a break in the plague that killed 24,000 of Rabbi Akiva’s disciples. The plague was sent by God because Rabbi Akiva’s followers didn’t conduct themselves with respect toward one another. On Lag B’Omer we celebrate the day the dying ceased.

When I read the phrase “the day the dying ceased” something leapt in my spirit.  But I didn’t know quite what to do with it, so I tucked it away in my “hmm what is that God?” file.  But now as I heard Mei share that God wanted to move the Gen X from a place of death to a place of life, I knew there was something more God wanted to show us.

The next day, Saturday, we had an all-day, Gen X-only meeting so that people could have the opportunity to share transparently.  For hours we listened as people opened their hearts about their discouragement but even more so about their overwhelming longing to see the presence of God manifested in the Church in a way we have not yet seen.  “Sometimes,” one girl said, “I’m afraid to even allow myself to go there because I feel like the intensity of it, it won’t come out nice and neat and orderly.  It’s going to be raw and messy and desperate – and I’m not always sure the Church, and especially the leaders, are ready for that.” 

Hearing the same cry, the same sadness over and over again was a bit overwhelming.  At one point, I thought “Oh Lord, how is this ever going to heal and release our generation?”  But as quickly as I thought it He answered me “they are more ready than you think.”

That afternoon we asked Mei, who had come to the church to help prepare lunch for us to share with us what the Lord had shown her. (The church was unbelievably supportive, the leadership was there, making food,  and a team of intercessors camped out the whole day in a little office across from our meeting room, determined to pray and run spiritual interference with the enemy, so that the Gen Xers could really hear one another and the Lord.)  After Mei spoke, I briefly shared about Lag B’omer and then suddenly the pieces of the puzzle started coming together for us.  We realized it wasn’t an accident we were meeting this particular weekend and in this place.  It was a divine set up and God confirmed that  He wanted the Gen Xers from this church to stand on their righteous foundations as an intercessory front for the nation and make the declaration, by faith, over all the Xers in Canada, that this was the day the dying ceases. 

We asked those who felt they could make this declaration to stand.  But we also knew that there were some who are still in their healing process and didn’t yet feel the strength to stand.  So we told them not to feel pressured to stand.  Instead we asked those who were already standing to go to them and lift them up.  This was a prophetic picture that when we move into what the Lord has promised our generation, we are leaving no one behind. Suddenly God’s presence charged the air and spontaneously those standing began praying over those they had lifted up.  There was an unexpected and powerful move of the Holy Spirit that happened as God began touching people deeply. 

During this time, one of the Xers shared with us that he felt God wanted us to do the same prophetic act that Elisha had directed King Jehoash to do in 2 Kings 13.  It witnessed with us so at the end of the afternoon, we stood together and prophetically “shot arrows” towards the East and then dropped to our knees and began striking the ground over and over, committing that Gen Xers will not let go until we see the glory of God flood Canada from sea to sea to sea.  It was one of those times when you know something is shifting in heaven as God supernaturally amplifies our simply earthly actions.  There was a roar as we struck the ground that sounded like hundreds of thousands not 50 or 60 of us!  The pleasure of the Lord (the tangible presence of God that comes with great peace) descended on the room and we knew that whatever God had wanted us to do, we had been obedient to accomplish it. 

The next day, which was actually Lag B’Omer, we had an opportunity to share with the whole church what the Lord had shown us the day before. And then the Gen Xers from the church stood together and called all the generations in the church to declare together that this is the day the dying ceases and  to strike the ground by faith. 

Throughout scripture we see examples of God using a remnant to stand in the gap and break through on behalf of the whole Body.  While we don’t have empirical proof, the Lord assured us in our hearts that this was an important strike in the ground and something did indeed shift over our generation that day (April 28).  And we believe that as we continue to walk this journey, together with God, we will see more and more of the “death” that has tried to entangle our generation swallowed up in victory!

If you would like to hear what was shared and declared that Sunday morning, you can click here for the MP3 of that service. (click the link to listen – a window will open in your internet browser.  To download the mp3 simply right click on the browser and select “save source as”)

If you feel this word is resonating in your heart, then let’s pray this prayer together: “Father, I thank you that You have said that the time of dying is over for Gen X.  I receive this as your word to my life personally and for the lives of every Gen Xer in this nation. Father, we believe that as we go forward you will continue to bring life from death and fulfill all Your purposes in our generation.  In Jesus’ name, amen!

Let’s continue over the days and weeks to come to make this declaration over our lives and generation by worshiping together with the songs below.

love

The Awaken Team

Our desire is to hear what God is saying for the August meeting and  more broadly what He is revealing concerning Gen X in this hour through as wide a representation of the Body as possible.  If you have something you feel to share, please email us at share@awakenthedream.org.

New Life/The Season of Singing – Tracy Rahn, Heather Clark, Tabitha Lemaire (click the link to listen – a window will open in your internet browser.  To download the mp3 simply right click on the browser and select “save source as”)

I was a dried up river
A burned down forest
No one could do anything for me
But You put food in my body
And water in my dry bed
And to my blackened branches
You brought spring time green
And new life
You brought me new life

You have made all my deserts into gardens
You have made all my deserts into gardens (repeat)

Now I am made newNew life! New life!
You brought the springtime green and new life
And the blackened branches bloom again
Fill all the land with the fragrance

See the winter has passed
The rains are over and gone
And the flowers appear on the earth
And the season of singing has come (repeat)

The season of singing
The season of rejoicing

You have turned my mourning
You give me beauty for ashes
And the garments of praise
For heaviness
Season of singing

Lift your voices and sing out, sing out
Proclaim a new singing is here
A season of singing
‘Cause winter is over
Winter is over!
The flowers appear
Season of singing