Christian Living

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CITY ON ICE

If you have ever been in an ice storm you are used to how it covers everything. In the right conditions the ice can last for days or even longer. This past winter we had such a storm. A couple of days after the storm I was driving to work and I noticed how much thicker the ice was the closer I got to the city. By the time I got to the city the ice looked completely different. It looked like steel instead of ice. It was pretty to look at, yet it looked kind of dead. I felt that God was speaking to me through this visual perspective of our city.

I will give a brief overview of our history and present conditions. Kingston is an old city rich in history. It has been prophesied to be a key city in our nation. It was a trading post for the first nations, a fort for the French, then a fort for the English. After that it was the first capital of Canada. It has been conquered, taken, fought over between the First Nations, French, English, and Americans. In the natural it was meant to be a strategic port, in the spiritual as well. Just as it appears that we have lost much in the natural we have certainly been held back in the spiritual. It is like there is a bronze roof over the entire city and surrounding area.

On one occasion I was talking with a coordinator at our community college and she told me that when she is deciding on what courses to offer she would wait for a few years before putting in popular crafts. Something could be very popular in the cities to the east and to the west and all over North America but it will not be popular here for a few years. Others have told me that they have been in business’ that are booming in other city’s but they just can’t get it up and running in Kingston.

Our pastors have a hard time here. Some have left the city for a season and then when God called them back they felt dread at the thought of coming back. I heard a few them speak once about their experience with pasturing here and when they were finished I was heartbroken for them. I have heard second hand that often when speakers come in from others areas they feel like there is a black cloud hanging over the city.

It has been said that Kingston is a key city to open Canada spiritually. I have also heard of it being a key city to open North America. It has been said that as goes Kingston so goes Canada. If this is all true then it would explain why we lost the capitol, why we have seven major prison and penitentiaries, why we never got to be an economic centre like our forefathers thought, why it’s a pastors graveyard (or at least why it feels like one). If Kingston is so important in the spiritual realm then Satan has been working hard at keeping us down.

With that bit of background I will now explain what God began to show me. Kingston was covered with ice.

In an ice storm everything gets covered with ice. It can become so heavy that damage starts to occur. An ice storm can bring down trees, cause power outages, cancel church, and make travel difficult thereby cutting people off from one another.

I felt God was showing me that what happens in the natural storm also happens in the spiritual storm. So if trees represent ministries as they sometimes do then symbolically ice can take down ministries. Ice can take down the power supply. Ice can stop people from going to church. Ice can also cut people off from one another thereby causing divisions.

So are these problems in the Kingston Church. Yes I would say that they are. I always thought of Kingston as being lukewarm. When I think of ice I think about it as being cold. But after thinking about this I realized that when it is above zero (usually) precipitation comes down as rain, below zero it comes down as snow. At around zero it comes as freezing rain, the rain freezes as soon as it hits the ground. So you could say it was neither hot nor cold, in other words, lukewarm.

So what does ice represent and how do we get rid of it? I think it is a religious spirit but it could also be a group of spirits. If we know that a spirit of religion is a problem how does ice help us understand how to “thaw” Kingston? How does God get rid of ice in the natural?

In the natural, the only way to melt the ice is for the temperature to warm up. That only happens in a few ways, either a warm front moves in, the season changes, or some other heat source is applied. You could also add salt to lower the melting point. So if in the natural a thaw is dependant on God through the weather, how much more should a spiritual thaw be dependant on God?

In thinking about warm fronts we must also think about cold fronts. If a warm front represents a move of the Holy Spirit then does a cold front represent the enemy? I think in this case it does. What happens when a cold front meets a warm front? A storm! Interesting that in the natural the two seasons with the greatest storms are spring and autumn, seedtime and harvest!

So is there anything we can do to affect the weather? Well, it is believed that as a group we do affect the weather by polluting it or by cleaning up the mess we made. So yes we can affect it. Some locations are getting warmer and others are getting colder because of environmental factors.

I believe that through worship and prayer we can invite the Spirit to come, like inviting a warm front or a change of season. Just like one man can’t change the environment one man can’t change the spiritual climate of a city or a nation. This of course implies citywide prayer and worship (national and international as well).

We can help by being loving and friendly in relationships to bring warmth from the inside. The warm air of the Spirit we can melt the ice from the inside and from the outside. A climate change affects the outside but the warmth from the inside can get the ice moving as well. The reason the ice falls off in large pieces is because the ice is attached to something with an internal heat source, which heats up the inside, and then a pocket forms. When the pocket is big enough the ice just falls off.

In the natural when the ice comes down it can do damage on the way down. Taking vulnerable branches with it, hitting people on the head etc. So until the ice is gone we can expect there to be casualties.

So how do we thaw the ice? We need to spend time in prayer and worship and fellowship, with all brothers and sisters regardless of our differences. To break out of our religious icy covering we need to be intimate with the Lord and follow His lead instead of the traditions of man.

Another way of getting the ice to melt is to put ice on it. Ice lowers the melting point of ice. We wouldn’t add salt to the trees or buildings but we do put it on our roads and doorways. Roads representing that which connects us to each other and doorways representing where we place our welcome mats. You could also apply light as a heat source, as in the sun. The light of the sun is a sufficient heat source to melt the ice as well and the light would reach the high places that we can’t reach with salt. So salt and light can also melt an icy covering.

It would seem that a warm front, sunlight, and salt would clear the ice away in a very short period of time. It appears then what we need in our city is for us to be salt and light and for the Holy Spirit to move in. Is it going to happen instantly? No. Could it happen in a day? Yes.

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