By Roger Armbruster
This is part 3 in a 3 part series titled Becoming a House Of Prayer for All Nations and All Generations. Check out Part 1, A House Of Prayer For All Nations, and Part 2, How God’s Healing Comes To A Nation.
Throughout this past summer, I sensed a growing passion among the First Nations to no longer simply be seen as a church for First Nations, but rather as a Gathering Place and a House of Prayer for all nations. Those that I work with have a passion to connect with other people groups and ethnicities as a key to fulfilling their own destiny so that we can inherit the promises of God together, and see the land healed as a reflection of the healing taking place in the hearts of people being reconciled.
By the time that the First Nations Family Worship Centre hosted the Awakening Manitoba Event with Alain Caron from French Quebec in early October, there was a coming together of Native and Non-native believers on a scale that I have not seen at an event that was organized and administrated by a First Nations congregation in Manitoba.
Awakening Manitoba Event Hosted by First Nations on Friday to Sunday, October 2 – 4, 2015
A mighty apostolic anointing was unleashed as Natives and Non-natives lifted up their voices in prayer to God with one accord, baptizing them together into a unity of love. A new sound was heard from First Nations worship leaders, releasing true and pure praise and worship to the Throne Room in Heaven. After the week-end was over, First Nations worship leader Alisa Tina Mason declared on Facebook: “I had a wonderful week-end. It was a powerful week-end right from the start. I will cherish it. God is doing a new thing…a shift.”
Tuesday morning, October 27
On Tuesday morning, October 27, the Followers of Christ Fellowship and Filipino Pastor Randy Casillan in Winnipeg invited all of our Manitoba FCA pastors to a Fellowship Breakfast. So it was a perfect opportunity to connect Randy Casillan in an “even greater” way with some of our First Nations leaders who are affiliated with the FCA such as Raymond McLean, and Irvin and Dolly Wilson.
Randy Casillan Raymond McLean Irvin and Dolly Wilson
At this Breakfast Meeting, Pastors Randy Casillan and Raymond McLean really connected, and the Filipino congregation Followers of Christ Fellowship is now inviting and welcoming First Nations Family Worship Centre Pastor Raymond McLean o share with their congregation on a Sunday morning in the near future. We learned that a number of Filipino believers have been fostering some of the First Nations children in their homes, and were already looking for and longing for a greater First Nations connection with the Filipino community.
What do all of these congregations (Maranatha Niverville, First Nations Family Worship Centre, Followers of Christ Fellowship and Amazing Grace Ministry) have in common? Number one, they are all FCA churches in southern Manitoba, and number two, they are a fulfillment, I believe, of Cindy Jacob’s prophecy that “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!”
Friday and Saturday evenings, November 6 and 7
On the evenings of Friday and Saturday, November 6 and 7, 2015, the Followers of Christ Fellowship celebrated their 20th Anniversary at the Philippine Canadian Centre of Manitoba in Winnipeg. This dynamic congregation is growing exponentially, and it is primarily Youth who are coming to Christ, and so they role model that aspect of the theme of our FCA National Convention in 2012 that is “across generations” as well as now being “cross cultural” in connecting with other nations and ethnicities.
The Youth of this congregation are vibrant, aggressive and on fire for God, and no wonder that the congregation is growing. The children, the youth and the adults are all involved in the life of the church, whether it be in singing, dancing, sharing, dramatizing, serving, caring for one another. It is truly an intergenerational congregation that is alive, and the whole family enjoys God’s Presence together!
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n Friday night of November 6, Faythe Santiago, guest speaker from History Makers in Manila, Philippines, preached a powerful message that impacted some 250 Youth hugely to be all out, and to impact their generation as a history maker, even as David did when he faced the giant Goliath when everyone else was fearful. While he faced doubts, he starved his doubts and fed his faith in God to allow God to use Him way beyond his limitations in the natural.
It was my privilege to develop the theme “Even Greater!” on the Saturday evening of November 6, based on the text from Haggai 2:9, “The glory of this latter House shall be greater than the glory of the former House, says the Lord, and in this place I will give peace.”
The “latter House” is a House not made with human hands that is rising up from within every nation (ethnos), and God has always saved His best for last.
I would like for us to notice the similarity in the wholehearted worship styles of both the Followers of Christ Fellowship (left) and the First Nations Family Worship Centre (right). Imagine what can happen both cross-culturally and cross-generationally as these Winnipeg congregations, and others in the FCA in Manitoba, start to connect at an ever deeper level! Truly God is so pleased as the nations bring their “sacrifice of praise” before His Throne, and as He Himself builds a House of Prayer for all nations.
Clearly, the nations are not divided by color, but are united by the color red. The Lamb who was slain has redeemed us to God by His blood out of every tribe, every language, every people and every nation. Worship will become so much more powerful as each worships God in their own heart language, their own ethnicity, their own cultural expressions, their own dances, their own art—all will be offered up as an offering to God for His glory, and He will receive those offerings. They are acceptable to Him when they come from the heart of worshipers who approach the Throne of Grace through the blood of Jesus!
Some two years ago, I preached a message at Maranatha Niverville on praise arising from within every nation, and how that the language and some expressions and sounds are unique to every culture, and that it was all acceptable to God provided it be offered through faith in Jesus’ shed blood as the only way to access the Throne of God. Then, when the nations begin to offer their praise as one, and in one accord, it is going to create a roar like a lion that will reverberate on to the land, and shake enemy strongholds, and set captives free.
While I was teaching the Lord gave Maya Robbins, a prophetic artist in our congregation, this painting of a First Nations worshiper leading the way by releasing sounds, songs, voices and dances that were penetrating the heavens, and were releasing sounds, songs, voices and dances from the other nations as well. When these voices become as one, I believe that we will see true worship rise to a new level such as we have not yet seen in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ. He always saves His best for last!
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.
