A change of heart

On May 27, God told me through a prophetic word that "there will be a day when Victoria will be out of my system and [He] will give me a heart for [Montreal]. It will be a day to mark down in my journal when I will be able to say with Guy and Rachel that I love this city."

In a post that I wrote shortly after I was given that word, I promised that how it happened would be worthy of its own post, so here's the story of how God changed my heart and gave me a love for Montreal. It took a bit of time for that day to come, for whatever reason... perhaps because of my own resistance... but it has come and it made a profound impact on my life.

On Canada Day (which is July 1 for the non-Canadians out there who don't know when Canada Day is celebrated), I went down to Old Montreal with Ang, Colin, and Taylor to join in the festivities. Except for the fact that, upon our arrival in Old Montreal, we were greeted by youth separatists carrying flags displaying a guy with a machine gun (we weren't quite sure what to think of that), Montreal certainly knows how to celebrate Canada Day! There must have been hundreds of thousands of people in Old Montreal that night - it was a complete sea of humanity and so much fun. We checked out some of the other shows that were going on before we finally found ourselves at a huge free outdoor concert that was taking place right on the old port. It turns out that this concert was pretty much the main attraction of the evening, aside from the fireworks of course (which were incredible, by the way), and that was where we spent most of the rest of the night until the fireworks started.

Fairly close to the end of the concert, it was Jeff Martin's turn. If you don't know who he is, Jeff Martin used to be the leader of the group "The Tea Party", which was a rock band that was popular in the 90's. At one point during his part of his show, he dedicated a song to Montreal after giving an introduction to the song that went something like this... "Of all of the places in the world that he has lived, including Vancouver, Los Angeles, Toronto, and now Ireland, the one city that has always had a special place in his heart is Montreal." And then he began singing a song called "The Kingdom". At the time, I didn't know the name of the song but I searched for it on the internet later, mostly because I was curious to read the rest of the words to this song that God had used to touch my heart so profoundly... and also to see if what I had heard was really a part of the song. :)

From the information I found on the internet, " 'The Kingdom' talks of living in Ireland, and hearing the melodies in the sea breeze off the Atlantic Ocean. With gale force weather outside one night, [Jeff Martin] sat in front of his fireplace and started humming a melody which became this song. Lyrically, he was thinking of old issues, working through them and moving on from the past, changing everything about his life for the positive."

It is a beautiful song and I was quite captivated by the music right from the beginning. And then suddenly the words that he was singing almost jumped out at me and I felt the Spirit of God surrounding me very strongly. The words that he was singing and repeating over and over were "the kingdom's calling, the kingdom's calling, CAN YOU HEAR IT, THE KINGDOM'S CALLING". The capital letters are to illustrate the force and volume with which he was singing those words. I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about and I knew nothing of his religious convictions, but I could hear nothing but those words and I felt like I was alone in the presence of God despite the fact that I was surrounded by thousands of people.

Then God said to me something to the extent of "the kingdom, My Kingdom, is calling and that is why you are here". I can't explain it but, at that moment, something in my heart changed and I said to God "I LOVE being here" and I felt an incredible peace and a love for Montreal that I had never felt before. Wow! How profound and appropriate it is how God chose to fulfill that prophetic word ... on Canada Day, at a moment when I was surrounded by thousands of Montrealers, listening to a secular song that spoke of a kingdom calling and which had been dedicated to the city and people of Montreal.

A few days later, I told Guy and Rachel this story and Rachel asked me if I had noticed any difference in me since that encounter with God. The one difference that stood out to me the most was an indescribable peace...

As I said earlier, I later found on the internet all the words for the song and here are the words of the chorus that had gripped me that evening...

The Kingdom's calling you
The Kingdom's calling
Thy will be done here
The Kingdom's calling you

How true it is that God's Kingdom is calling Montreal, that His Kingdom is calling, that His will be done in this city. God's Kingdom is calling and that is why we are here!