By Roger Armbruster
This is part 1 in a 3 part series titled Becoming a House Of Prayer for All Nations and All Generations. Check out part 2, How God’s Healing Comes To A Nation, and part 3, First Nations & Filipino Connection in Winnipeg.
Someone once said that the nations are not divided by color, we are united by color—the color red!
“With Your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation (ethnos)” (Revelation 5:9).
“My House will be called a House of Prayer for all the nations (ethnos)” (Mark 11:17).
During the National Convention of the Fellowship of Christian Assemblies in Canada in the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, in October of 2012, the leaders of the FCA in Manitoba developed the theme, “Behold, I will do a new thing! Cross Cultures – Across Generations.”
It was also highlighted at this particular Convention that Winnipeg is in the very heart of the Continent.
Even before the coming of immigrants into western Canada, the First Nations, the original people of the land, recognized this region of what is now southern Manitoba as being the heart, the centre of Turtle Island, and the place where the Creator sits or rests and from where He speaks and makes His voice heard to the creation.
Out of all the words written about this province, one of the most evocative is a newly revealed passage about native feelings at a place at the narrows of Lake Manitoba. It is written in the introduction to the 2012 anthology Manitowapow, edited by Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair and Warren Cariou:
“The most common explanation of the name (of Manitoba) is drawn from the Cree words Manitou (Great Spirit) and wapow (sacred water), or in Ojibway, Manito-bau. From the narrows of Lake Manitoba where the waves dashed against the rocky shores of Manitou Island, these sounds were thought to be sacred beats that rumbled through Creation and created beauty, definition and meaning. This is the voice of the Great Spirit, Manitowapow.”
The roaring noise of pebbles on a beach on Manitou Island in Lake Manitoba was the source of a Native belief that “Manitou” or “Great Spirit” was beating a drum. The beating of a drum speaks of the heartbeat of the Creator, and Manitoba is in the heart, the centre of Turtle Island, from where the Creator’s voice flows out from the centre, from the heart, from the place where the Spirit sits or rests!
Many believers in Manitoba believe that the meaning of our name is a part of our prophetic destiny. There must be healing in the heart of the nation since the heart has been broken and fractured along ethnic, racial, generational and denominational lines.
In fact, a special report in Maclean’s Magazine in January of 2015 made the claim that “Canada has a bigger race problem than America. And it’s ugliest in Winnipeg.” Mayor Brian Bowman subsequently called a press conference at City Hall to which he invited community leaders from many spheres of the community, all agreeing that the heart of the nation has been fractured, and that we must address this issue of racism head-on.
I believe that this is a call for the church, and particularly for our FCA churches in Manitoba to arise, and to begin role-modelling reconciliation, and role-modeling the type of House that Jesus was talking about when He said, “My House will be a House of Prayer for all nations (ethnos)” (Mark 11:17).
It is my conviction that wherever sin abounds, there is the potential for grace to abound even more. Could it be in God’s plan that the very city that has been labelled as the most racist in Canada could also become a role-model of reconciliation and healing between the original people of the land and the later immigrant groups?
On August 12, 2014, Cindy Jacobs released a prophetic word over Manitoba which declared: “There has already been a spirit of reconciliation loosed in Manitoba, but God says now I’m going to do it in a way that is greater. I’m going to cause a partnership to come with the native and the non-native churches, and God says I’m going to release the prophetic word. I see a great prophetic mantle upon Manitoba.”
I put this forth these points to pray into and to engage one another with:
1. Could the very meaning of the name of Manitoba as a place from where the Creator speaks be a foreshadowing of a unique prophetic mantle upon Manitoba?
2. Could the key to the releasing of that prophetic word require a healing at the heart of the Continent which has become fractured and broken along ethnic, racial, generational and denominational lines?
3. Could that prophetic destiny involve releasing the word of that Lord that would enable Canada to fulfill its prophetic destiny to bring healing to the nations. We are the only nation in the world with a leaf as its national emblem. “The leaves of the tree of life are for the healing of the nations (ethnos)” (Revelation 22:2).
Canada has pretty much every nation and ethnicity on earth living within its borders. What an opportunity to role model the healing of the nations!
Roger Armbruster has served as a minister in the FCA and as an elder with FCA Canada. He is an Elder Emeritus, serves on the FCA Media Board, and is the Founder of Canada Awakening Ministries and the Lead Pastor of Maranatha Good News Centre in Niverville, Manitoba.
