I just received permission to post a portion of a note I received as my United flight landed in Calgary. Throughout the flight from Chicago, I was praying about the scope of the vision I’d been sharing this past weekend in New York, some of the very same stuff I’ve been seeing and hearing and sharing for a number of years, stuff all over the pages of Clairvaux Manifesto.

There on the plane, I was feeling a bit nuts, like it was too huge for me and I was totally deluded to think something of this magnitude is even possible for highly educated people… let alone a small fry like me. Yet, as the plane taxied to the terminal in Calgary, I wondered if it was time to put the flag in the ground.. to write the plan in detail.. to take the risk to raise the money.. to sound the alarm and gather the people.. to take these things to another level.. Clairvaux 2.0

In those private moments, I typically defer to the fact I’m nuts; for those who know me that’s a given. But, then I read stuff like this from a new friend on the journey who doesn’t know me yet and yet writes this kind of pointed stuff to me out of the blue (and I share it like this with you to show you how God will encourage you through the saints, when you need it, and when the time is right.. to show you how discernment is mysterious, yet corporate, and when it’s time, it’s time). This new friend writes, without having read Clairvaux Manifesto, yet:

“Kirk, we met this year at Ambrose when you came to the chapel… I recognize that this is a bit of a random message, but I saw you from a distance a couple of weekends ago [at a conference]… during one of the worship sessions, God started giving me some visions for you. My intention had been to talk to you at the conference itself, but that night you left before I had a chance to approach you. I had just dismissed what I’d seen afterward, but God kept bringing it to mind, so I thought I’d better write it down and send it to you. So, here we go . . .

The first image that I saw was of you standing on the edge of a mountain cliff with the wind blowing at your back, wild and free. You were planting a red flag in the ground, and it seemed as though you were claiming the mountain. You looked quite serious—as though what you were doing was of great gravity. From there, my perspective zoomed out, and I saw a picture of a map of the world. Then, I watched as little red flags popped up all over the map; it was as if what you’d done on the mountain was having ramifications of some sort around the globe. I didn’t have a sense of the nature of the connection between these two events, but it did seem as though they were linked in some way.

Next, I saw you being clothed with a shield and a sword. The shield was one like the Crusaders used: it had a large red cross on the front of it. Then God said that you were his warrior and the things he is going to have you do on earth are going to have effects as far-reaching as the Crusades. However, he said that the things you do in his name are not going to sully the reputation of Christianity; rather, they are going to ignite a flame for him among the people on the earth. He said that you are his chosen ambassador to the nations, and you will be the leader of many.

Then, he showed me another picture of you. Have you seen the movie The Kingdom of Heaven? If you haven’t, this part won’t be quite as meaningful, but I’ll try to explain it anyway. Okay, God said that you’re like the protagonist in the movie, Balian. Balian is a common blacksmith whose life is changed forever when Godfrey, a knight in the Crusades, comes to him and reveals that his is Balian’s father. Through a series of events, Balian chooses to leave his former life behind and join his father in the Crusades. Unfortunately, Balian’s father dies shortly after Balian joins him, and Balian soon finds himself the sole owner of a grand estate.

Seeing the deficits on his estate and the needs of the people under his domain, Balian sets out to dig wells and revive the land to help his people. In everything he does, Balian is guided by honour and integrity; in contrast to those around him, he understands that holiness dwells within and cannot be attained simply through external deeds, such as fighting in Crusades or buying indulgences for the remission of sins.

In any case, all that to say . . . I saw you as Balian; you possessed the same qualities as he – honour, integrity, and a commitment to enter into the trenches to aid those around you. Actually, the image that I saw was of you in the trenches, literally – digging wells with people and tending to their needs in ways that you, a great estate owner, would never have been expected to. It was as though you were the incarnation of an upside-down Kingdom . . . God’s Kingdom . . . the Kingdom of Heaven. It was a very striking picture. Very beautiful and profound, perhaps because of its rightness.

Anyway, Kirk, I don’t really know much about you so I can’t be sure this will apply at all, but my prayer is that the things God intended for you to receive would resonate deeply within your spirit and the things that do not apply would fall away without leaving any mark.”

Thanks friend! We know the saints are not to be deluded, selfish, self-absorbed, or self-righteous… but we do know they are on the move behind their King, and they are warrior poets in His Name.

Banners wafting easy in the trenches… Wait for it… hold…. hold…. snap… Out fly light glint swinging rapiers… flags snap taunt in the wind… Run… Hold that flank… overhead, Shaddai’s shadow… Pick them up!!!… groans… cries…  We are all in this together… and no one gets left behind!

(No, not even YOU…)