Kanata, ON

 

It is my joy and honour to celebrate Canada Day with you. I bring greetings from my Chief, Chief Cornerstone, and if you haven’t been rightfully welcomed to Canada…I welcome you to my homeland, and I bless you in the name of our Creator God.

 

Today marks the anniversary of the Dominion of Canada that was established in 1867. This year on July 1, 2010 Canada is 143 years old, but really, how old is Canada? 

 

It is said that the Colony of New France was established in 1608 by Samuel de Champlain, and before him, the French fishermen and Basque whalers fished off the Labrador coast before Jacques Cartier arrived in 1534.

 

Four hundred years before that, around 1000 AD, the Vikings established a settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland and Labrador.

 

And finally, Canada has been the home of First Nations and Inuit peoples dating as far back as 10,000 years! 

 

Canada’s land mass is 9,984,670 sq kms, and it is the 2nd largest country in the Americas and in the Western Hemisphere. 

 

We have an almost endless supply of clean, fresh water. Canada has some 20 per cent of the world's total freshwater resources. From the north to the south, from the east to the west; from the rising of the sun to its setting in the west; we live in an incredibly beautiful land, and every day, we arise to breathe in the beauty of life all around us. 

 

Ask the animals, and they will teach you or the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish of the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.  

 

All creation has a story to tell of the wondrous love and power of an awesome God. 

 

So today, we gather to celebrate what our Creator God has given us in this great land we call Canada.

 

From one man he made every nation of men that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, ‘’we are his off spring.” 

 

Canada and the people of Canada have had a prophetic destiny from the beginning of time. There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.  This means the Lord our God has everything in his control and his arrow will hit every mark in our lives and in our nation.

 

For the Lord says; “So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

 

God has always had a pattern to achieve the fullness of his plans and purposes. 

 

We have to enter into covenant relations with him in our faith and obedience to his every word and commandment.

 

We must always pray for the peace of Jerusalem and bless Israel. 

 

We must honour each other as joint heirs and co-laborers in the Kingdom of God here in our own nation and then to the world. 

 

We must know that we are living in a season when the marginalized, oppressed, suppressed and dispossessed people will arise to a God given restored place of prominence, authority, dignity and freedom to be who they have been created for. 

 

The tail will not always be the tail, for God has established ancient boundaries and when the original and host peoples realign themselves in a right standing with God then a timely shift will take place in the spirit and in the natural. 

 

The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the LORD your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom. 

 

Dr. Billy Graham once said: "The greatest moments of Native History may lie ahead of us if a great spiritual renewal and awakening should take place. The Native American has been a sleeping giant. He is awakening. The original Americans could become the evangelists who will help win America for Christ! Remember these forgotten people!" 

 

If we continue to devote our hearts to our Maker, stretch out our hands to reach him; if we turn away from the darkness of this world and not allow evil to dwell on our lands, then we will lift up our faces without shame; we will stand firm without fear. 

 

The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law. 

 

In the timing of the Lord - the wind always blows refreshing times and brings changes. There will be a new way of doing things. There will be change. 

The old ways will have to make way for the new. We will still be eating last year’s harvest when we will have to move it out to make room for the new. 

 

In the Hebraic calendar, today is also the 19th day of Tamuz, the 4th month, in the year of 5770. It is a time when we must ‘guard’ our eyes to see only that, which is good and modest - in the world in general and in particular, in our fellowman. 

 

The spiritual sense of sight in this season requires us to have the ability to ‘see through’ physical reality and to behold its Divine source; it is therefore essential, that we understand the times and seasons of the Lord. 

 

We must see beyond what is before us.  We must see with a new vision and know with clarity where we need to go from here on.  

“Without a vision, people perish”. 

 

Vision is not reactionary to a negative past. Vision must propel us to want to do more for our people and nation. We were created to be visionaries with a Kingdom mindset and to change the atmosphere by what ‘we say’ and by what ‘we see’. 

 

I believe because Canada has not waivered in its support for Israel, Canada is a blessed nation.

 

I believe because Canada and the original and host peoples of this land have made significant spiritual amends through an act of forgiveness, Canada will not only take back what the enemy has stolen but it will take new land for the Kingdom of God, and it will dig new wells of revival in its restored relationships and freedom from a negative past.

 

A mighty wave of God’s glory will overtake our people and cover our lands with such a force that it will not only expose everything that has been hidden but the intensity of the Presence of the Lord will drive away all darkness!

 

The spirit of poverty will be broken off, of our people and they will be at peace and they will be prosperous! 

 

The Spirit of life will overtake the spirit of suicide, and hope will arise with healing in its wings!

 

See! The winter is past; and the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of the doves is heard in the land! 

 

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power to the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings as eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint. 

 

You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and the trees of the field will clap their hands! 

 

Life in our nation will be brighter than the noonday and darkness will become like morning. We will be secure because there is hope.  We will look around us, and we will take our rest in safety. We will lie down in our homes and we will not be afraid. 

 

Canada at one time waivered in the valley of decision but now it will arise as a significant world leader and not a follower. 

 

Canada in its restoration and freedom will be a healing to the nations. 

 

Canada will not only be a peacekeeping nation but it will be a peace-making nation. 

 

I believe, if Canada sustains its obedience to follow the decrees and is careful to obey all of the Lord’s commands, the Lord will look on Canada with favor and will keep all its promises because he is not only a covenant making God but he is a covenant keeping God. 

 

The Lord said: “I broken the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with your heads held high. 

 

Like men who dreamed; our mouths will be filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it will be said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them”. The Lord has done great for us, and we will be filled with joy.” 

 

On this 1st of July 2010; spiritual complacency and business as usual will be at an end, and a new beginning of restoring the places long devastated for generations will flow like a mighty rushing river of grace and forgiveness, and with the power of the living God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in our nation!

 

The altar of the Lord will be restored in our homes, in our communities and instead of reason the altars will burn with passion, hungering and thirsting after the righteousness of God.

 

The Lord said: “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do greater things than these because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”    

 

We must ask - to do more for the Kingdom of God, with the time before us, for the sake of our people and for the sake of our nation, but most of all to bring glory and honour to the Son of God, Jesus.

 

On this 1st of July 2010 let us begin to dream big once again, the best of what could be for our people and nation because the Lord God is mighty!

 

On this 1st of July 2010 let us arise determined more than ever to design and deliver a shared improved future built on a solid rock foundation on the best of what should be, and the best of what will be - for all our people and for our nation!

 

Let the path of the righteous in our nation be as “the first gleam of dawn shining ever brighter till the full light of day.” 

 

Canada - Arise and shine for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you!

 

Canada - this is your time of restoration.

 

Canada - this is your time of promotion!  Canada - this is your time!

 

God bless Canada!

 

(Kenny Blacksmith)