Word for Aotearoa (New Zealand): The Season of Integration

Word for Aotearoa (New Zealand): The Season of Integration
by Jennifer Choi, February 2025

The Spirit of the LORD says:

“Aotearoa (New Zealand), you are entering into a season of integration.

For centuries, isolation has formed your identity: Your isolated geographical location and distance from the central powers and power systems of the world have shaped you; even colonisation looked and felt different in your territory. From the temperament of your people to your natural landscape and wildlife, your distance from the world made you unique. And you developed close ties with nations and territories that are in proximity (geographic), while having few ties with the rest of the world.

But I am about to ride you like a surfing board, Aotearoa: Get ready to ride the waves! With one foot on the South Island and the other on the North Island, I am about to take you from your remote corner of the world into oceans and lands far beyond. It is time for Aotearoa to wake to its mandate for the nations (Matthew 24:14) – something that has been forgotten.

I have lamented the extinguishing of the flame carried by your older generations of faith - who understood that Aotearoa has an international mandate; that fire has gone out from your national altar. The Ecclesia of Aotearoa have been fragmented and powerless, either emulating American and Australian cultural Christianity (and their commercialisation/franchise models) in pursuit of false integration with those who have political/economic power and influence on you. Or, you have chosen to form and gather exclusively around indigenous or migrant identities – in the spirit of isolation. Neither approach reflects my design and plan for Aotearoa. I call you, Ecclesia of Aotearoa, to cleanse My House from commercialisation (Matthew 21:12-13), and to strengthen My Body by welcoming the strangers in the land, the widows and orphans (Psalm 146:9)

I am about to pick up the chess board of the Ecclesia in Aotearoa and flip it over – I will sweep the pieces off their established positions and declare the end of the season of stalemate and fragmentation! I will carve pieces from a different kind of wood and set them in position, to start a new game. And the rule of the game is this: Prefer integration over isolation.

Churches and Christians who have their hearts and hands extended to the unfamiliar and faraway corners of the globe, those who take responsibility and authority to carry the torch of Apostolic and Prophetic mandates across oceans - these will be entrusted with my power and resources. And within your own borders, you will see how I bless the churches that invite and integrate the migrants and foreigners in the land (Deuteronomy 10:19). Churches that cling to monocultural traditions and practices will be rendered ineffective. Aotearoa must pursue integration with the world out there (externally), but it must also pursue integration within its own territory (internally).

Ecclesia of Aotearoa, you must become pioneers once again. Do not attach yourselves or come under the shadow of alliances and movements originating from Western churches. You are not a continental, Western nation – you are an island nation of the Pacific Ocean, born of and shaped by Te Moana-nui-a-ki-wa. It is time to reclaim your identity as I have created it!