Duet 5:33 You shall walk in all the way that the LORD your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess.
You may know, deep in your spirit, that where you live isn’t working for you. Something inside you says ‘I don’t fit in here.’ You may be a citizen and born in the nation you live but something in you whispers ‘This is not my country’.
You may understand what it means to have grown up in a country and felt another was yours. You may have lived a very transient life growing up. Perhaps you moved home a lot and these things were traumatic.
UPDATE 23rd June 2016 – – ROUND 1 is at full capacity. We will most likely do a more rounds so please write to us and we’ll let you know when they start.
My brief story
I was born in Australia to Dutch immigrant parents. They’d only just moved to Australia and were doing their best to fit in as foreigners. Working. Making friends. Learning the language. Understanding the culture. All these are hard and often stressful things. When I was born, my mother told me later of the loneliness she felt and the longing to be in Holland where she would feel the support and motherly pride a woman feels when presenting her firstborn child to her family and friends. I picked up on that longing she had in her heart for another nation and for nearly 3o years I believed deep in my heart that I didn’t belong in Australia. I struggled to really make friends at school. I even walked a little strange. The only way I could describe it was my spirit wasn’t reconciled to the land.
A few years ago, through a series of events, prayers and key teachings I came to be reconciled to the land God had destined me to be a blessing in. We started to prosper (finally) and things started to turn around.
I have walked a number of people through this transformative process of being reconciled to the land they dwell in and have witnessed some amazing results that unfolded in the months that followed.
HOW YOU CAN HELP?
Perhaps you watched the video or saw the appeal on Facebook. I’m basically looking some people who know what it feels like to live as a foreigner in the land God called them to flourish in. It’s often linked to spiritual land dynamics, vows, generational flow and/or trauma of sorts. Missionary kids and other third culture kids will know what this is like. Immigrants and displaced people will know what this is like. Some children of immigrants know what this is like.
Perhaps there is a longing in your soul to belong to the nation you are in. To prosper and be reconciled to this season and place in God’s destiny plan for your life.
I’d love to hear your story. I will be inviting a number of people to engage in conversation and skype-based calls for prayer ministry around this area.
If you’d like to be part of this, I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to connect, Skype or email everyone but I will do my best as God leads and time allows to engage somehow. I know some of you hold keys and insights in your life-story that will be invaluable to others as we produce a teaching and ministry model to bring healing and restoration to those who struggle in this area.
UPDATE 23rd June 2016 – – ROUND 1 is at full capacity. We will most likely do a more rounds so please write to us and we’ll let you know when they start.
I ask you email me via email (davidtensen@gmail.com) or the CONTACT page. To give you a place to start, My question would be, do you feel welcome and connected to the land you are in (Australia, US, UK, NZ wherever). Do you feel permission to dig your roots into the soil there, or do you strangely feel this isn’t home? If you want to to answer that along with some family background and any other info you feel might help that would be wonderful.
I’d also like to highly recommend you listen to this teaching on Spiritual Dynamics of the Land which I preached late 2015. It holds more stories, keys and biblical insights into the subject. https://davidtensen.com/sermon-you-the-land-and-spiritual-dynamics/
Dave, Glad you are exploring this. I love land. If there was any way to support you I’d love to.
Bless you
Will do Michael! Blessings
This is a topic that I’ve been engaged with for years so it’s good that you’re exploring it. Book recommendation: The Land by Walter Breuggeman – a superb OT analysis of Israel’s relationship with the Land and all that that means. Very helpful for understanding Father’s perspective too. Also, suggest reading older blogs (and some newer ones) by Martin Scott at http://www.3generations.eu where he writes on this. He’s sown massively into the UK and Europe. I’ve done a blog at http://www.essexprayerwalk.blogspot.com about a prayerwalk a group of us did in 2007/8-2010 around the Essex borders in the UK and down the River Lea into London – hearing the cry of the land is vital if we are to connect with it. It can be a lament mirrored in our own hearts by the displacement you’ve described, it can be the lament of abandonment and neglect or it can be the cry of joy at investment of the Kingdom as the Sons of God are revealed. Jesus told me he walked every centimetre of creation – all the places we’ve walked, he originally walked. He loves the Land. Very intersting Aussie book called The Songlines too – talks about singing names to aspects of the land there.
Bless you for exploring this… Will try and keep abreast of what you’re doing…
Thank you so much Jane. Some great links and thoughts. I like what I’ve read and heard of Breuggeman but will look into what you mentioned of his Martin’s and yours. Bless you!!