“Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.” (Psalm 84:5)

There are times that the hunger of God inside does not seem to be burning as brightly as other times. In times like these I become hungry and desire a deeper revelation of my God.  

Over the last couple of weeks I was faced with a major ordeal in my family.  My infant son stopped breathing and certainly would have died if it were not for the intervention of modern medicine.

He was rushed to a country hospital after my wife noticed what he was going through.  A big city medical team was air lifted to the facility to work on him and resuscitate him enough to transport him to Ottawa where he was in Intensive Care for 8 days and then in another room for 4 more.

There is so much that you face spiritually during a time like this.  I believe that I would not be overstating things to say that I am a soul on fire for God.  I live my life trying to find the deeper things of the Spirit and to live within that realm.  My general desire is to stay within the place of the Spirit and to introduce others to a life of the supernatural.

But when the devil seems to wreak havoc, you are tempted for a time to consider another path for your life.

I remember a friend of mine who lived in revival until he experienced a tremendous set back in his health.  It frightened him so much that he backed away from having revival in his church.  I was dismayed when I learned that this is what he had done.  I believe it displeased God then and stopped revival from spreading in his region at a higher level.

A couple of nights ago I had a dream and I was preaching.  The anointing wasn’t that strong.  I don’t know if you have ever felt the anointing when you preach, but if you have, you know that it is sort of like the fuel that gets you to the end of what you are doing.  Without that fuel I don’t even want to stand up publicly to speak.

So in this dream I faced frustration as I spoke without anointing.

I don’t want to live a life without the fire of God in my heart.  I don’t want my ministry to lack it.  The only remedy is time in His presence and hearing His voice for my life and ministry.

If we allow fear to enter in because of the dangers that can come upon our families or our lives because of the anger of the devil toward us, then we are saying that we do not trust God adequately to take care of us in the face of persecution, trial and opposition.

We either trust God with all that is valuable to us and carry out His will, or we give up our journey into the fire of His presence and live a secondary life with no profound impact.

When I die I want it said, “There lies a man that changed the world as he found it.”  I want them to say: “There is a man that helped change my life for the better. Had I not met him, I would have never experienced the fire of God as I did.”

I want to be like Elijah.  I want to be like Peter, like St. Patrick, like St. Columba—all of whom faced the devils of their generations and fought their battles well.

Why? Because you and I know there is no life like it in all the world: a heart set on pilgrimage to the glory realm of God

I pray that this revelation will be a destiny-advancing word for you today.

Acts 2 says that in the last days God will pour out His spirit and people will prophesy but the scripture also says that they will experience dreams and visions.

One of the great things about being a child of God is how He sends warnings by dreams and visions to make us aware and to pray for things that are approaching that seem negative.

God often warned people throughout the scriptures of difficult trials or circumstances that were coming.  He warned Mary and Joseph about King Herod and He warned Paul about persecution that was awaiting him in Jerusalem.  And He will warn you and me too.

My son stopped breathing on his own on April 1 and had to be rushed to the hospital in Arnprior where they worked for three hours to try to stabilize his condition.  A team was flown in from the Children’s Hospital to work on him and then they transported him to Ottawa for prenatal Intensive Care.

Two nights before my son was transported this way I was ministering in Rochester, NY.  My friend Stewart and I were chatting as we were preparing to go to sleep in the motel room we were sharing.  As I closed my eyes to fall asleep suddenly I could see the flashing lights of an emergency vehicle in the distance.  I understood that an emergency was coming my way when I saw this.

My sister in Virginia woke up the same night not being able to breathe.  She went out to her living room and began to pray.  She didn’t know who it was for but felt it was someone close to her and so she began to intercede.

My mother saw 911 on a couple of occasions just before the incident, which in parts of Canada is the number that you call during an emergency.  She understood that something was coming and began to pray in intercession and tongues.

When I finally got to the hospital I sat near my son and remembered another vision that I had of him just before he was born.  In this vision I saw him sitting on the floor of our house and he was about 10 months old.  He looked happy.  When I saw this I thought to myself “Why am I seeing this God?  Is there something you are preparing me for?”

Our God is a good God.  He doesn’t leave us without an answer when bad things come.  He will warn us before, and comfort us through the process.

I understood that a bad thing was coming and when I found out it was my son I knew he was going to get through it even though it was going to be a long process.

I believe God will supply the same encouragement and comfort and warning to all of His children.  I believe that this is part of the children’s bread and healing.  The comfort of hearing God’s voice through such crisis is the peace of His spirit in our inner man.

There wasn’t a day that His spirit did not comfort me.  He will also be there to comfort you.  I pray today that He will open your ears to hear the sound of His voice even in the face of crisis.

Just like He did for me. Just like he did for Paul. For you too, perhaps?

“The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.”— Proverbs 10:22 (KJV).

It might sound strange but the above scripture recently got me through the near death of my infant son Samuel.

Samuel stopped breathing on his own on April 1.  For two weeks my wife stayed at his bedside in the hospital waiting for the all clear sign to bring him home.  I got so sick myself during this time that I could only spend 9 or 10 days by his side.

This Scripture from Proverbs kept going through my head throughout the course of this ordeal.  I found myself reminding God of His word.  I said to him, “I am a child of God and your word says that the blessings of Abraham are my inheritance in Christ Jesus.”

I continued by saying, “I don’t believe the death of my child is a blessing and therefore God, I implore you to spare his life.”

“The Blessing of the Lord, it makes rich and he adds no sorrow to it.” 

I have six children and truly there are no greater riches that I could imagine for my life than these six souls created by the Master.  They are my treasures and my joy.

My father and mother lost a child at birth, as I am certain that some of you reading perhaps did.  My first wife experienced a miscarriage and this was a very difficult  experience for us.

My father recounted the experience of losing his son to me as I spoke to him during this crisis.  I said, “I have thought of what you must have gone through many times during this ordeal.”

He was sort of surprised that I had.  He told me his story of holding his infant son in his arms and giving him a name to only have him die hours later.

I don’t even want to consider such an experience for my own life.  I call out to God and remind Him of His word, “Lord, your blessing, it makes me rich and adds no sorrow to it.”

The sorrow of losing a child is not something I want to experience.  In fact as the miracle that really occurred with my son unfolds before me such gratitude rises in my heart toward my Creator God.  This boy could have died very easily, but I believe because of the blessing of God on our lives the Lord spared him.

The perfect conditions arose so that an awareness of what was occurring came upon my wife.  She rushed him to the hospital where the doctors were given wisdom on how to treat him.  Although it did not feel like a blessing at the time, I now realize that God is able to spare suffering and remain true to His word even in the face of tremendous odds against us.

The devil roams the earth seeking whom he may devour, but Christ stands in the heavenlies interceding on our behalf to the Father.

And as our Messiah’s prayers are heard and as we stand upon His word, it becomes the solid rock and foundation of a faith that carries us through every trial and tribulation that could come into our lives.

Praise God!

As I was preparing to go to sleep recently, I saw Christ appear in a vision as a Shepherd holding a staff.  I heard this is the army of the Lord, meaning that those who rise up in this hour will have the same countenance as Christ as He appeared in this vision.

He was looking into the heavens and divine light was radiating on His face.  I couldn’t see what He was looking at but He was surrounded by the glory of God.  In a way He was a very delicate fellow, not one that you would expect to be a member of an army that would fight against the devil and his minions and yet that was what was spoken over Him.

I felt that He was vulnerable, but I believe that it was this vulnerability and trust in God that were His greatest assets.

When we trust in the Lord with all our hearts and lean not on our own understanding then God is able to make a straight path for us (Proverbs 3:5-6).

We don’t have to be strong.  We don’t have to be highly trained warriors.  We just need to trust God and His ability to save us.

It was this trust and understanding that helped David defeat Goliath.  He didn’t look at the giant of a man standing in front of him but rather he looked to his God.  And in looking to his God he was able to cut the head off the giant and send the enemy fleeing.

In this hour I believe the Goliaths will stand and little men and women of God will stand in defiance of them.  There is a warrior shepherd that is on the rise, and no weapon formed against them shall prosper.

They are overcoming by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony.  They know their God and He has set them free.  They understand His strength and power to save.

They might look weak on the outside just like Christ did in my vision, but we know what He accomplished by submitting to the work on the cross.  Each of us will have opportunity to stand or run in this hour.  I pray that you will have the strength to stand and when you have done all you can to stand even firmer.

The greatest American war hero in World War II was a young man by the name of Audy Murphy.  He was about 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighed 130 pounds.  He did not let that stop him.  He did not let what others believed about him determine his bravery.  He stood in the face of opposition and resisted and took out 4 tanks and almost 80 men singlehandedly.  He did this standing on a burning tank firing a machine gun.  The tank could have exploded, but he didn’t care. He just knew what he had to do and did it.

I believe that this same spirit is rising up now in the generation at hand and the devil who seems to have great strength is about to be destroyed by the little Audy Murphy’s who believe in something bigger than themselves.

This is the hour of the Shepherd Warrior.  It is your hour and I pray that you will step into the battle to see what the Lord will do.

“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”  (2 Corinthians 3:18)

Change is in the air.

One of the constant and perhaps refreshing elements of life is that there is always something new about to occur. I thank God for change because life can really have a way of being boring sometimes. We are always growing into the next thing or rising to the next level.

Remember when we were still in school and summer would come. That was an exciting moment. Upon graduating and entering into summer we were entering into change.

Even upon returning to school in the fall was exciting because it was new again. If you were from a big town you probably didn’t even have the same people in your class, and of course there was always a new teacher and new subjects to look forward to.

Even if you failed the grade it wasn’t the same the next time you went through. There were new people and you probably saw the subjects in a new way even though some of the content was the same. Hopefully the subject matter came easier to you.

We can always expect life to change and when we are in Christ we can expect it to change in interesting ways.

Have you been struggling with a character flaw? Well then perhaps this next season God will bring you to a place where you will not struggle with that again.

Do you desire to move into a new ministry for your life? Maybe you have been waiting like Joseph, who waited in prison for years for change to come. Just when it seemed like he would never reach his desired destination he was summoned by the King to take over a high command.

I believe we are entering a new season as a church.

This has been prophesied by a number of reputable ministries. God wants to align you and to get you ready for the next thing he has in store for your life. Don’t give up hope now. Your day is about to come. The light of Christ is about to shine through your life more brightly.

I sense that there are some of you who have gone through the fires in this past season. You faced major things in your life. It wasn’t fun, but those fires served to purge you so that you would be able to walk at the next level. Pride was beaten back, anger was removed and now you are more like Christ.

Yes, there are other seasons coming and some of them might be difficult, but you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. When your hope is in the Lord, you will never be let down. Things may rise against you, but you will never be overcome. You will always rise to the top when Christ is the centre of your life.

Change is a’coming! Get excited!! Praise God!!!

There are times in my life when I feel surrounded by the enemy and I wonder why God would allow him to be so viciously close.

The enemy only comes “to kill, steal and destroy.” (John 10:10).  1 Peter 5:8 says, “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”  

We should not be shocked by the enemy’s tactics, though I have to admit that I am always surprised at the level of cruelty and hate that he does exhibit toward mankind.

It is ghastly to imagine that he hates us so much that he is willing to threaten even our beautiful children–these children whom we love so much, our children into whose eyes we look and see our hope for future generations.  He hates them and he is willing to destroy them.

He was willing to have the children killed to try to stop Moses in Goshen down in Egypt. He was willing to destroy all the male babies in Bethlehem when Christ was born.  He put into action a plan and legalized as a human right to kill any unborn child in our generation and called it abortion.

We have to realize that our warfare is not with one another—although at times it does seem to be.  According to scripture, our warfare is not according to the flesh. Ephesians 6:12 says, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”  

We have to focus our energy on spiritual warfare. The people in front of us are merely vessels for good or for evil.  If we focus our energy on man, the enemy wins every time.

Jesus, going to the cross, did not worry about the insults and mockings, nor his bleeding and torn flesh. At this point in his journey he understood the victory before him on the cross.  He understood that his battle wasn’t against man but against the rulers and the powers of this dark world, the same powers that have been in control for all of time.

A man or woman may come and go, but the same powers of darkness continue to try and rule.  They just leave one man and move to the next.  When one man falls by darkness there are others to take his place.

Jesus gave up his right to self-defense and placed his very well-being into the hands of a loving God.  His body was destroyed, but the greatest victory was won for all mankind.

When Jesus shed his blood on the cross, he won a victory over darkness.  We now have an advocate in heaven who will come to our aid.  The blood of Jesus and the grace of God have made us free from sin.

Not only are we free from sin, but now we can be completely made whole in body, soul and spirit.  God’s redeeming work has begun in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Lord is not blind to the enemy’s plan for our lives.  He is just not that concerned about it.  He cares when we have been maligned, abused and mistreated, but he also knows the outcome and our eternal destination in Christ Jesus.  2 Corinthians 4:17 says, “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”

Focus on Christ.  Keep your gaze on the Lord of glory.  Forget about your troubles and remember to put Christ first in everything.  The enemy will try to divert your attention. Sadly, there are those who have allowed him to get them off of the path, but those who continue steadfast till the end will inherit a crown of glory.

You are able to do all things through Christ who strengthens you.  You will reach your destiny. Yes, you have an enemy, but he is a defeated enemy. Praise God!

“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:10-12)

We have all faced persecution for Christ.  It comes with the lifestyle.  We live in a pagan atmosphere within North America.  A person who is a true Christian stands out like fire in the night.  When you turn to Christ it will not be a long time before you face discrimination or persecution for your faith.

Persecution can be subtle and not so subtle.  I remember on one of my jobs I had bought a new outfit.  When I came to work one of my colleagues asked me if I was trying to be Amish because he thought I was dressed like one. The same colleague always looked down on my faith and whenever he got a chance he would say stuff like, “When I was young and immature I thought the same way.”

I expect this from non-Christians, even though it can be painful.

It is one thing to suffer at the hand of non-Christians, but what about when you are persecuted by Christians?  Shouldn’t they know better?

Maybe, but I have had Christians say all kinds of false things about me. What I have come to realize is that people are generally a fickle lot.  Even when they are in Christ they can love you one minute and hate you the next. We are given plenty of opportunities to practice forgiveness –even on a daily basis.

I have a mentor from Quebec, whom I consider my French father.  One time I was complaining to him because another man of God I knew was continuously putting me down and dishonoring me.  He said, “Darren, you will have to forgive him every day that you work with him and perhaps for the rest of your life.”

At first this thought put me off. I was thinking “Why should I have to forgive a minister I work with when he should know better?” And then the reality of the statement rang true inside of me and I realized it was not this man speaking but Holy Spirit through him.

We will likely experience bad treatment on a continuous basis from people in this life, whether they are Christian or non-Christian.  If they treat us well or from an unselfish motive this is generally the exception and not the rule.

There are many times that I have had incredible encounters with the supernatural and have tried to speak about them to other Christians.  Not only do they not want to hear them, but they will often ridicule the experience that I have had in God.

I remember speaking about a sign and wonder I saw one time and I was publicly rebuked for speaking about it.

But should we stop testifying of what God has done in our lives simply because people don’t want to hear it?

This is where the blessing of God comes to you when you are persecuted.  We must speak regardless of what people think of what we are saying.  We must tell them about our miracle-working God.  If we don’t, then many of them will never experience a miracle.  By telling them of what we have seen we are opening a new way for them to look at life.

This is the gospel message.  It is not about a religious tradition.  It is about interacting with the living God and experiencing His glory.

When I tell people what I have seen they can get angry with me, but they still have experienced the truth and my life becomes more blessed.

“If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.” (Matthew 18:8-9)

When I was a young man this Scripture used to scare me.  At that time I wrestled with many impure thoughts and sexual sin.  Had I taken it literally I probably wouldn’t be a father to six kids today.

They said of Origen, one of the early church fathers, that he castrated himself for the gospel’s sake.  He followed a literal interpretation of Matthew 19:12: “For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from [their] mother’s womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He that is able to receive [it], let him receive [it].”

Truthfully I don’t know what Jesus meant when he said these things, but I have come to an understanding of them that rests easy in my heart.

I only came to the Lord when I was 32 years old.  Before that I committed a lot of sexual sin.  I was addicted to pornography and going on the internet was especially difficult for me.

When I came to Christ, I still wrestled with my thought life.  What was I to do? Gouge out my eyes or cut off my hands because of these sins in my life?

What we need to do is ask God to show us the things He wishes us to cut off from our lives and how to do it.

For me, the struggle against pornography and sexual sin lessened as I removed a computer from my house.  So there was a season that I lived this way.

If you have trouble with alcohol then cutting off associations with people who would tempt you to drink might be good for a time.  I did that too.

If you have trouble with buying drugs in the city streets, maybe move to the country and live in an isolated place for a time until you are healed of your need for drugs.

By staying away from the places that are associated with your sin, you are lessening the likelihood of these temptations arising in your life.

If you have trouble dealing with a need for power, then perhaps serving the poor, handicapped or needy will help you to overcome this deadly desire.  Perhaps losing yourself in humble circumstances and serving the poor will help you to overcome the need for power.

This is what Saint Francis of Assisi did.  He was a wealthy man and a successful soldier who chose to be poor and weak.  In cutting himself off from the wealth and trappings of man, he became beloved by all.

John 15 that says that every branch that is in Christ is pruned in order to make it more fruitful.  We must remember that it is not by our own effort that we become free from sin.  It is a work of Holy Spirit in our lives.

As we listen to God and do as He says we will be free.  The things that once bound us become easier to deal with as we listen to Him more and more.

It was because of Christ’s work on the cross that we are free.  There is no work of our own that can set us free, but we are free by the Grace of God.

Let God touch your hearts today.  Let Him free you from your sins.  Let Him direct you as to what to cut off and when.

He will help you advance toward your destiny.

“Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? Now eagerly desire the greater gifts.” (1 Corinthians 12:27-31)

Desiring to walk in the greater gifts is something that Paul commanded the Corinthians to do. If we were commanded to desire these gifts then it must be possible for us to obtain them.

There must be something in the desiring of these gifts that produces the gift within us. Therefore as we extend ourselves toward God an understanding of these gifts may burst deeper in our hearts and then burst into the world around us.

As we walk this path of faith we are inspired to have faith by Holy Spirit to become something greater than what we are today.

I have walked in many of the gifts of the Spirit and as such I have become a gift to the church.  In becoming a gift to the church I mean to say that my life is a watering hole where people can come to find God.

In desiring to become this gift I am stating to the Lord that I am willing to allow Him to use me to bless whoever He wishes to bless.  My life is no longer my own but it is His to do as He desires.

In this way I become a gift because I am opening my life up in such a way that it becomes an example of what God can do in a life that is open to Him.  The desiring produces the ability to obtain to or become the gift.

I personally will not be satisfied until I become everything that I can become in Christ.  That means I will have to extend myself in ways that I never even imagined and in ways which now may seem uncomfortable, but extend myself I will in order to become the greater gift.

If one of the gifts to the church is to be an apostle, then I desire to be an apostle, because Paul commanded me to desire the greater gifts. I only have a vague notion of the role of an apostle, but because Paul tells me to desire this gift, then I will desire it, and I expect to become one because apparently the way to be one is to desire to be one.

I want to be used in the most incredible ways by God.  If the Lord should tarry I want my testimony to be such that people will look back and say Darren Canning was a man who walked with the Spirit of God.

When he prayed for you things happened.  When he commanded the devil to leave he left.  When he prayed for the sick they were healed.  When he prayed for the dead they rose.  When he preached fire fell from heaven and lives were completely transformed.

In fact I want my witness to grow even stronger once I am gone.  I want people to be learning from me until the end of time.

I desire this inside more than I desire anything else, more than I desire breath and more than I desire life.  I want to be remembered as a mighty man of God filled with the presence of God.  There is nothing wrong with this desire because I am desiring the greater gifts.

I want the Lord to say to me, “You were given much in life and you gave much in life.  Well done, my friend, well done.”

I don’t want to be accused of not using the talents He offered me.  I want to use every last drop of life that I have for the Lord, and in the end I want to hear His voice calling me home to my rest.

Would you also “eagerly desire the greater gifts?”

“To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit…” (1 Corinthians 12:8)

I love the gifts of the Spirit and I love the ambiguity that exists within the scripture regarding how they operate.  We should not be uncomfortable with ambiguity, because within a relationship with Holy Spirit these gifts can manifest in many different ways.

I have heard people try to become dogmatic about my prophetic gifting and state exactly what gift was operating when I prophesied over them.  They will say, “That was a word of knowledge, and not a word of wisdom,” or they will say, “You weren’t operating with a spirit of knowledge but rather you were prophesying.”

I am glad that you have it all figured out (!) but I personally do not.

I do know that there are times when I ask God for direction in prayer that a word of wisdom will come to me.

The other day I was having trouble with my taxes.  I worked for 15 hours and did my taxes 3 or 4 times, but I was not satisfied with the results.  Because of my unique tax situation, my way of dealing with my taxes is not straightforward and so I had to learn how to do them correctly.

But after all those attempts, I was really frustrated with my results.  I went to the kitchen of my house and my wife was there.  I asked her to pray with me.

I sat on my chair and faced the wall and I said “Lord I am very heavy. I don’t know how to do these taxes. I want to be a man of integrity regarding them, but I also want to be able to maximize my return.”

Within two minutes the phone rang.  It was my mother, who with all due respect, does not know how to do her taxes.  She goes to H & R Block each year and gets them to do them for her.

On the phone she says to me “Why not use the other program?”

My mother had no idea that I had purchased two software programs to do my taxes.  She may not have even known that I had purchased one of them.

When I heard this, it was a word of wisdom to me. It gave me a direction to follow.  As I stepped into it and applied the word that came, my tax problems ended very quickly.  I went to my computer and completed my taxes within 30 minutes, using this other program.

It was a much better program and allowed me to claim expenses that the other program would not allow me to claim, even though I knew they were acceptable expenses according to the Canada Revenue Agency Manual that I was working with.

I ended up maximizing my tax return and felt a great measure of satisfaction in knowing that I had taken the ethical course and claimed all my earnings from the previous year.

To me that is how a Word of Wisdom works.

We have an area where we lack understanding, direction or knowledge.  When we pray and seek Holy Spirit, He often uses other people to speak that wisdom we are lacking.  They may or may not know that they are operating in wisdom.

To be honest, when a person speaks the answer to my dilemma without knowing all the details of my situation, I find that more satisfying. This gives me confidence that the answer is coming from God and not the person in front of me.

How have you experienced this spiritual gift in operation in your life? Please share your responses with the rest of your DWOD family.