Australia Day Prayer 2021 - @By Ps Norman Miller
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
Australia Day Prayer 2021
@By Ps Norman Miller
Australia Day Prayer 2021 • I honour God first and foremost and I pay my respects to the traditional owners and elders of Australia, past, present and emerging. • I am pastor of the Tabernacle of David Cairns & founder of the Centre for International Reconciliation and Peace with my wife Barbara. • I am also an Aboriginal artist called Munganbana or Mountain Water and I am of the following 3 tribes – the Jirrbal, the Bar-Barrum and the Tableland Yidinji of the Atherton Tableland area in north Queensland.
Australia Day Prayer 2021 • 2 Cor 5:17-21 says we are all called to the ministry of reconciliation & to bring the message of reconciliation • It might be unusual for an Aboriginal leader to be hosting a prayer meeting on Australia Day, controversial as it is but a few years ago, the Lord gave me Gen 26 • Genesis is the 1st book of the Bible as Jan is the 1st month of the year. It is when Isaac redug the wells of his father after the Philistines filled them up.
Australia Day Prayer 2021 • Gen 26 tells us the Lord prospered Isaac in time of famine & the Philistines filled up the wells Abraham dug because of jealousy. Isaac reopened them & his servants dug a well & he called it esek because there was contention over it. He dug another well & called it sitnah because there was hostility or hatred over it. So he dug another well & there was no dispute over it so he called it Rehoboth (open space) for the Lord had given them room to live in the land. • On Australia Day we need to give each other room to live in this land and prosper & room for the Holy Spirit to move.
1. Redigging the Wells Conference 2. Rehoboth well in our church in Cairns
Australia Day only commemorated since 1935 • It commemorates the First Fleet arriving in 1788 on 26 Jan at Port Jackson which became Sydney. • Many First Nations people call it Invasion Day or Survival Day as Australia was settled without our consent in an undeclared frontier war. • This meant loss of life, land, sovereignty, economy based on the land & it impacted adversely on our social system, culture & language
Australia Day Prayer 2021 • Therefore, there has long been controversy about the date and there is a “Change the Date” campaign • Aboriginal Christian William Cooper initiated a Day of Mourning in Sydney on the 150th anniversary in 1938, working with Bill Ferguson, Jack Patten, Ps Doug Nicholls, Pearl Gibbs and others • In recent years, Barbara & I have attended Yabun festival in Sydney where First Nations culture & arts are commemorated & issues discussed
Australia Day Prayer 2021 • Australia Day is a day meant to evoke patriotism, remember our achievements & bring optimism about our future. • The National Anthem has recently been changed from “young and free” to “one and free” which is a step in the right direction as First Nations people have long been here before British settlement. • However to be one, to be united, to be reconciled, we need to face our past, remedy the situation & work together. This is why the call for VOICE TREATY TRUTH from Uluru needs support.
1. This shows the Day of Mourning in 1938 & 2. myself with a giant
boomerang at the Cairns Festival 2019
Australia Day Prayer 2021 • If we are declaring we are a sheep nation, we need to hear the voice of the Father. Jesus said “I am the way, the truth and the life…” John 10:27, John 14:6 • We also need to hear the voice of the First Nations people of this nation and allow them to partner with us in making Australia the nation under God we want it to be – righteousness exalts a nation. • Gen 21 & Gen 26 At Beer Sheva, a treaty or covenant was made between Abraham & Abimelech & later Isaac & Abimelech so that the Hebrews could live in the land of the Philistines in peace
Australia Day Prayer 2021 • Barbara and I had been working for reconciliation for some time before we went to a Reconciliation Conference at Coventry Cathedral England in 1977 & the Lord put it on my heart to repent for the bitterness & resentment First Nations Australians felt towards British. This was healing for me too. • The ministry of Identificational Repentance where you could stand in the gap for your people group & repent was new so no one responded. It took an intercessor Jackie Hopkins to travel to Cairns the following year to release forgiveness.
Australia Day Prayer 2021 • Daniel (9:20) was one of many Biblical leaders who stood in the gap for his nation & repented for their sins to avert God’s judgement. • Roger Mitchell came from England to Praise Corroboree in Canberra hosted by Warwick Marsh & Peter Walker. Out on the lawn he said sorry to a group of Aboriginal people for how the English treated us. I received his repentance & released forgiveness. • The British came to Australia as a team in 1998 & said “we are sorry.” We hosted them in Cairns at a reconciliation conference.
Australia Day Prayer 2021 • We travelled through England with the Australian Prayer Network in 1999 saying “we forgive you” • A wave of healing came over our nation in 2008 when PM Kevin Rudd said sorry to the stolen generation of children removed from their parents for their so-called protection but often just to assimilate them to grow up like white people, robbing them of family, community & culture. It was bipartisan & I was there for my family. • The following year the Mayor of Cairns said sorry at a public ceremony & I said sorry also for Aboriginal people’s anger.
Australia Day Prayer 2021 • Why? Because even though the greater sin was on behalf of the white settlers, there is sin on our Aboriginal side as well. Sin is sin whether it is big or small. • Reconciliation is a 2-way thing. One says sorry and the other receives it & releases forgiveness. If we need to say sorry as well, we should. • Mt 5:23 Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift
1. This is a painting called “From Sorry to Journey of Healing” I gave to Kevin Rudd to thank him for the apology. 2. a painting of Cook I did for the 250th anniversary. He has a boomerang hat & holds a map of Australia with treaty on it. Cook was not 1st. My boomerang records Aborigines here from time immemorial, Janszoon 1606 (who landed at Mapoon) & Cook 1770.
Australia Day Prayer • We have had revival in Australia, including in Aboriginal communities like Elcho Is, the Kimberleys, Pinnacle Pocket & Yarrabah. We brought these revivalists including Maratja to Cairns for a conference on Redigging the Wells of Revival in 2003. My mother was part of the Pinnacle Pocket revival. • It has been prophesied by Smith Wigglesworth that the last great end-time revival would come from Australia & spread worldwide. This is a great privilege & responsibility we need to pray that to be manifested.
Australia Day Prayer • The Lord put on my heart re 2021 that 7+7+7 =21 In Isa 11:1- 2, the 7 spirits rest on Jesus "And the Spirit of the Lord descends upon Him, Spirit of wisdom and understanding, Spirit of counsel and might, Spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord.“ We also have the 7 churches of Revelation. • The 7 Spirits are like the 7 branched menorah or lampstand. • There are 9 fruits of the Holy Spirit, like the 9 branched menorah, “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self- control; against such there is no law” Gal 5:22-23 We need to pray in the 9 fruits & 9 gifts of the Holy Spirit. 1 Cor 12:7-11
1. Australia Day 2019 placing menorah, key of David etc. on map Australia 2. 9-candle menorah Barbara launched Cooper book Hanukkah 2012 SJM
Australia Day Prayer 2021 • Also Dan 2:21 “He controls the course of world events; He removes kings & sets up other kings…” We can trust God even in uncertain times. His ways are higher than our ways. • Dan 9:21 Daniel confessed the sin of his people, “As I was praying, Gabriel, whom I had seen in the earlier vision, came swiftly to me at the time of the evening sacrifice.” Confessing the sins of our nation can bring an angelic response. • Dan 10:21 Gabriel told Daniel that the spirit prince of Persia (today Iran) had blocked the answer to Daniel’s prayers for 21 days & Michael, an archangel, had to come to help.
Australia Day Prayer 2021 • He had to return to fight the spirit princes of Persia & Greece. V21 “Meanwhile, I will tell you what is written in the Book of Truth. (No one helps me against these spirit princes except Michael, your spirit prince. I have been standing beside Michael to support & strengthen him since the 1st year of the reign of Darius the Mede) • We need to ask God’s spirit prince over Australia to help us to fulfill God’s plans & destiny for Australia & for our godly prayers & prayers of repentance to be answered. We also need to pray for angelic reinforcements to help God’s spirit prince over Australia.
Australia Day Prayer 2021 • It is important to move in the opposite spirit. Where there is hate, to sow love. Where there is unforgiveness, to sow forgiveness, where there is lack of understanding to sow understanding. • Where we have been colonized, we need to spiritually colonize the world with the love of Jesus or Yeshua. • The story of Joseph sold into slavery by his brothers is a good example. He forgave them & said in Gen 50:20 “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”
Australia Day Prayer 2021 • I have done a no of prophetic acts of reconciliation. In 1999, while in England, I pulled the spear out of Gov Arthur Phillip. An Aboriginal man had speared him & he did not retaliate. • British texts agree the spearing of Gov Phillip in Sept 1790 was because of a cultural misunderstanding in which he misread the Governor's peaceful intentions & threw his spear in what he thought was self‐defence.
Australia Day Prayer 2021 In Canberra at our Australia Day Prayer event 2020, I did this again as it was the 250th anniversary of 1st settlement & I felt the Lord wanted me to do it on Australian soil.
Australia Day Prayer 2021 • In 1999, on the Australian Prayer Network tour of England, we visited Whitby & sat in the church Capt Cook worshipped in. Barbara & I then walked the 199 steps down to the sea, praying it would be a stairway to heaven. • In Portsmouth, where the First Fleet left from for Australia, the Aboriginal group, which included Peter Walker & myself, walked on shore & were welcomed by the English coming in the opposite spirit. An Australian & an English intercessor exchanged rings in unity at the 2 rings monument which is in Portsmouth and Sydney & wedding bells happened to chime nearby.
1. Steps at Whitby 2. Portsmouth England re-enactment
1999Australia Day Prayer 2021 • I did a prophetic act of sending a ship made of flags from England to Australia in 1999. In 2006, we hosted a conference at the Sydney Opera House aimed at Healing the Wounds of First Settlement. • Along with traditional owners, the Aboriginal group, including my family and I, sailed in the Aboriginal owned Rainbow Warrior & arrived to a welcome by traditional owners in Sydney. I felt my ship of flags sailed into port 7 years later. It was a powerfully healing time.
1. I shaped the 3 Australian flags into a ship 1999 to send it to Australia in the right spirit. 2. Micky Mundine (R) my grandmother & mother leading the way as we went onshore in Sydney 2006 to be welcomed the right way by traditional owners.
Australia Day Prayer 2021 • In 1770 when Cook sailed up the coast from Sydney, his ship was beached at Cooktown for repairs for 7 weeks. They were fortunate they camped at a sacred spot where disputes were settled otherwise they might not have survived. • An altercation did break out when they took a lot of turtle onto their boat as it was only allowed to be eaten for special ceremonies, with permission of tribal elders. Yet Cook’s men were feasting on the delicacy, fished from Guugu Yimithirr waters. • The Aborigines set fire to the camp. Cook’s men fired at them
First Reconciliation on Australian Soil • Cook wounded the leader as gunfire & spears fought it out. Then an elder of note came forward with the tip broken off his spear & made peace with Cook. It is the first reconciliation that occurred on Australian soil so is highly significant. This area is now known as Reconciliation Rocks. The Aboriginal community regularly commemorate/reenact this event. PM Scott Morrison was there 2019 to join them. • On Australia Day 2020, we came in the opposite spirit, with Glen Sebasio doing a prophetic act giving me an ornamental turtle, traditional food also for Torres Strait Islanders.
Australia Day Prayer 2021 Reconciliation Rocks Mural of Aboriginal man making peace with Cook
Australia Day Prayer 2021 We need to earnestly pray re religious freedom legislation which will be a major issue this year. As part of my campaign, on 25.2.20, I presented a boomerang to Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells at Parliament House Canberra. She offered to pass it onto the PM.
Australia Day Prayer 2021
• Let this be a day of healing, a day of restoration, a day of
turning our mourning into dancing and our sorrow into joy. In
the words of a song Barbara & I wrote called Transformation,
We’re going to see a transformation
We’re going to have a visitation
We’re going to see the hand of God move
All across this nation
We’re going to see the jails closed
We’re going to see evil exposed
We’re going to see the pubs shut down
All across this nationAustralia Day Prayer 2021
We’re going to see children smiling
We’re going to see women thriving
We’re going to see men restored
All across this nation
We’re going to see the land healed
We’re going to have justice sealed
We’re going to have Godly government
All across this nationYou can also read
