Québec Je t'aime!
    Québec I love you!

Forty years ago, a revolution took place in the heart of Canada. During a six year period from 1960 to 1966, while the Baby Boomer generation was at its peak, Québec underwent huge socioeconomic change which came to be known as the "Quiet Revolution." A key part of this revolution took place at the spiritual level and was the spear-head of a massive change in the spiritual destiny of Québec and Canada. It was a revolution of the heart.

  Québec Je t'aime!
   Québec I love you!


The History

  Québec - The Revolutionary Heart of Canada

A Prophetic Call to recognize Québec's hour of Destiny

Getting to the Heart
It is a fearful thing to connect with one's own heart. This may seem a strange statement. None-the-less, if you were to pose the question, you would find that most people are disconnected from their own hearts and passions. This is primarily due to the fear that we may find there a dream that we have not brought to fulfillment, or that we believe we cannot accomplish. Whether subconsciously or otherwise, we tune our hearts out to avoid the pain that this realization would bring. "A happy heart doeth good like a medicine, but hope deferred makes the heart sick." Ignoring our own hearts leads to depression and illness.

At another level, ignoring the heart of a nation leads to a national crisis. Yet, most of us have not stopped to consider where the heart of Canada lies, let alone to consider the spiritual influence that the heart of the nation carries.

The heart of Canada is the province of Québec. It was established here the day the first missionaries arrived to lay down their lives for the sake of proclaiming Christ to the First Nations. Our Godly heritage was first established in Québec. Just as the battles for a person's destiny are waged in the heart, it was in Québec, on the Plains of Abraham, that the battle for the destiny of the nation of Canada took place.

A resident of any other province may ask, "What difference does this make to me?" Jesus said that if one part of the body suffers, all parts of the body suffer with it. If Canada were a person, it would be of little good to have strong arms and perfect eye-sight if the heart was failing or weak. And that is precisely what is happening in Canada today. While other provinces are healthy and thriving, Québec, the heart, is in crisis. It is no coincidence that on Mount Royal, the mountain in the middle of Montreal, all the Maple trees are diseased; every leaf covered in large black spots. It behooves us to attend to the heart of our nation. The destiny of Canada is tied up in Québec.

Realizing the Vision
Invariably, whatever happens in Québec has an impact past its political boundaries into the whole of Canada and the rest of the continent. This has been true through the centuries, from the battle at the Plains of Abraham determining the primary language and culture of the nation, to the influence that Montreal Expo 67 had on its 50 million visitors.

It is no coincidence that the Catholic Church chose Saint John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, as the patron saint over the province of Québec. One of primary calls upon the province of Québec is to be a forerunner in Canada; one who prepares the way for others around or after him/her.

And today, we are on the brink of witnessing a revolution in Québec which will reverberate across the land.

The Time of our Visitation
There comes a time when the destiny of an individual, a nation, or a generation hangs in the balance. Jesus called such a time, "the time of your visitation" (Luke 19:44). When it is the time of our visitation two things must take place. First, we must recognize the time of our visitation. Second, we must respond promptly and properly to God. The Bible records many sobering examples of generations that fell short of fulfilling their God-given destiny. The best-known generation was that of Moses. Because of their disbelief, rather than faith and consecration to God, they wandered in the desert for forty years and died without fulfilling their destiny. The whole nation bore the consequences of that generation's failure.

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness, Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, And saw My works forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, And said, 'They always go astray in their heart, And they have not known My ways.' So I swore in My wrath, 'They shall not enter My rest.' (Hebrew 3:7-11)

Another generation that did not fulfill its destiny was the generation of Jesus and the apostles. The whole nation suffered because that generation not recognize the time of its visitation. Jerusalem was destroyed and the people were either killed or scattered to different nations.

Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, "If you would have known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. "For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation." (Luke 19:41-44)

On the other hand, in the book of Joshua, we have the positive example of a generation that entered into the Promised Land. Because they recognized their hour of destiny and responded with extreme consecration and revolutionary faith in God (Joshua 3:5), the people of the younger generation fulfilled their destiny and possessed the land that had been promised to their fathers.

The Past:
The Quiet Revolution
Forty years ago, Québec entered into a desert experience much like what Moses' generation did. During a six year period from 1960 to 1966, while the Baby Boomer generation was at its peak, Québec spear-headed a massive change in the spiritual destiny of Québec and Canada. This was part of a huge socioeconomic change which came to be known as the "Quiet Revolution."

Prior to Québec's "Quiet Revolution," during the Duplessis era, dead tradition and conservatism reigned and a general rejection of any new values or ideas prevailed. These are the very characteristics of a religious spirit that usually manifests in the church but can also manifest in governmental and in political organizations. A religious spirit is a demonic spirit that replaces the true power of God with a form of godliness and/or lifeless tradition.

The death of Duplessis marked the beginning of "The Quiet Revolution." So many intense and contrasting changes took place in Québec during the period extending from 1960 to 1966 that the results were nothing short of a revolution, although a quiet one.

One of the biggest changes that took place was the large-scale rejection of the Catholic faith together with anything that had to do with Christianity or the God of Christianity. True faith in Christ was replaced by a broad embrace of humanistic and secular values. As a result, the hearts of the Boomer generation grew cold toward God and became focused on "Man"-- themselves.

God used the Boomers' rejection of Christianity as a means of purging their generation from dead religion and empty tradition and preparing a generation that would not carry the same kind of baggage and anger towards the Church and God. Although God did not desire the Boomers to reject Him, the image of God that the church had given to them was not an accurate one. Religion and tradition will always fall short of introducing God because they reduce Him to words, formulas, rules and regulations. God did not mind that the Boomers rejected the image of Him as a miserly, judgmental, controlling God who was distant and disinterested in them. But He did desire them to get to know Him as He truly is. Their failure to do so ushered Québec into a period of desolation or a "spiritual desert."

The impact of this Quiet Revolution reached far beyond the borders of Canada. As a kind of "Grand Finale" to the quiet revolution, on the anniversary of Canada's 100th birthday, Montreal hosted Expo 67, the theme of which was "Man and His World." A staggering 50 million people from around the globe visited this World fair and were impacted by the values that were communicated through it, values that were predominantly man-focused.

As a result of the purging that took place through the rejection of Catholicism and God, the people of Québec, by nature passionate and revolutionary, no longer have a satisfying object of passion, nor a vision worthy of revolution. The heart of Canada is sick; heart sick. Québec today is diseased with immorality, hopelessness, rebellion, and frustration.

But this does not have to be the end of the story.

Realizing the Hour of Destiny of the New Generation
December 2006 will mark the end of a 40 years period since the Quiet Revolution took place. The number 40 speaks of completion of the time of desolation before entering into one's hour of destiny. For instance, the people of Israel spent forty years in the wilderness before the younger generation crossed over into their promised land. Jesus fasted for forty days before launching into his glorious earthly ministry.

Québec at a Crossroads
Today, in Québec, we also stand at the shores of our destiny. Indeed, this year is a crucial one in the deciding of Québec and Canada's future. The new generation, composed of the children of the Baby Boomers, is at a pivotal moment in its history. In their early thirties and younger, these men a women are making major life decisions, getting established, starting families. They are looking for their "raison d'être", their purpose in life. They are looking for something to live for that is also worth dying for. Within a very few years they will have made the choices that determine the direction of the rest of their life and which will also determine the spiritual direction of the province and the nation.

Because of the break that the baby boomers made from religion and tradition, their children are free of the bitterness their parents held against the church and are wide open to meet God in all His amazing splendour and beauty. (Their openness is very similar to that of the Russians after the fall of communism.) But unless we believers walk in a revolutionary love-relationship with God, and unless we present Him for whom He truly is, free from the trappings of lifeless religion and dogma, they will have no way of meeting Him. Their deepest longing will remain unmet.

Like the young Hebrew generation that stood on the shores of the Jordan River after walking in the desert for forty years, we have come to a crossroad. We, as a generation and as a province, are faced with the choice of either responding to God in faith, consecrating ourselves to Him, or of turning away again in disbelief and rebellion. Either way, there must be a response to God that is national, corporate, and generational.

The Lord is looking for a people who will wholly consecrate themselves unto Him (Psalm 24:3-4) and seek His face (Psalm 24:6).

3 Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in His holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, Nor sworn deceitfully. 5 He shall receive blessing from the Lord, And righteousness from the God of his salvation. 6 This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him, Who seek Your face. Selah (Psalm 24:3-6)

But God is not just looking for those who are already believers. His desire is for a whole generation, an entire province and, eventually, the entire nation of Canada.

The Fullness of Time
In the 1960's, Québec initiated a profound change in the spiritual atmosphere of Canada by turning away from God and embracing human secularism. The time has come for the pendulum to swing back in the other direction. The new generation is ready to be introduced to the real God they are searching for. They are ready for the revolutionary Jesus. Now is the fullness of time for the new generation in Québec. We must not fail to respond to this hour of visitation.

Responding to the Call and Seizing the Hour of Destiny
In response to this reality, a festival called "Québec Je t'aime!" ("Québec I love you!") is being organized for the last weekend of September, 2006 in Montreal. This will be a festival that will celebrate the uniquely passionate and revolutionary nature of the Québecois people and the beauty of Québec, the heart of Canada. Over the course of the celebrations, non-Christian Québecois people, especially the new generation, will have the opportunity to encounter the God who is passionate about them and who is worthy of their passionate pursual; the awesome God of their forefathers. The Christians will have the opportunity to turn away from trying to make God tame, boring, and predicable, and to invite Him to redefine and reveal Himself as He really is: the great "I AM." We will embark with Him on the wildest adventure of our lives.

People from outside Québec can be involved through prayer, financial contributions, or by participating in the celebrations.