Entering Into Joy
Linda Dion
November 9, 2025
As Marcel and I were on our way to the church and praying, I was taken a bit by surprise at the joy that I was suddenly experiencing and I wondered if this was a little preview of what the Lord wanted to do during the evening. Later, as the team gathered for prayer, Chris Keyes sensed that the Lord wanted to release His joy in our midst. When you read Bev's testimony down below, you will see that she too, had this joyful anticipation.
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Some joy was released, but it wasn't an explosion of joy, as we thought might happen. But God did touch people and some people did experience a measure of joy; a quiet, peaceful and more profound kind of joy.
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The following testimonies give an idea of what God did do and it is really quite beautiful and encouraging!​​
Jeff Haydt
"The theme of the evening was Joy. Marcel expressed that the Lord wanted to impart His Joy To us. What an incredible offer! But I was not feeling it, being run down by illness and a busy time. I had trouble entering in and somewhat desperately asked the Holy Spirit to help me “pray as I ought”. I consistently heard that I should be kneeling and after the fourth time around I clued in that it wasn’t me. Once I was kneeling I experienced the familiar encouragement of the Spirit to give praise. In the midst of this I felt the Lord encourage me to lay down the burdens I was carrying.
Because of something similar that had happened recently I assumed this word was just for me, and talked myself out of sharing it, justifying my conclusion with the thought that “if the Lord wants it shared, it will be shared “. And He did. So I was both chastised for keeping it to myself and encouraged that it was the Lord’s words when Marcel announced from the microphone that he sensed the Lord encouraging us to leave our cares at the cross (Marcel: I don’t quite remember the words of the message you shared, just that it sounded like what I was hearing). Another intimate experience of God, the Shepherd leading me in green pastures, by still waters to revive my soul, courtesy of Magnificat Ministries."
Bev de Montigny
"​Dear Marcel and Linda, it was such a blessing to be able to GATHER once again with you, your worship team, and several others for an evening of Praise and Worship of the Lord. I had looked forward to it with joyful anticipation and, given that you and the worship team sensed that the Lord was desiring to pour out His joy on all who gathered, I had perhaps a preconceived notion of what the evening might feel like.
I was surprised therefore when what I experienced following the beautiful heartfelt praise was not so much a sense of joy, but a sense of deep reverence, worship and adoration of the Lord. This seemed to cover the whole assembly. As people knelt, a palatable peace permeated our gathering. Reflecting on a conversation I had had in the car on the way home, as well as the lyrics from songs sung during our time of Praise and Worship that echoed in my mind the following morning, I suspect that the peace we experienced came from our laying down whatever burdens we carried, recognizing that the battle belongs to the Lord.
It is He who is the Way Maker, Miracle Worker and Light in our darkness. May many others come to GATHER with us and experience this same peace!
Together when we GATHER,​
We’ll fight on our knees
With our hands lifted high
Oh God, the battle belongs to You
And every fear we lay at Your feet
We’ll sing through the night (and into the next day!)
O God, the battle belongs to You!
Herb and Valérie - who drove all the way from Brantford to be with us - helped us out by welcoming people as they entered the church. Valérie noticed that many people were indeed filled with JOY as they left after the evening and she herself testified, "I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit and the music opened me up to receive His anointing."
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I spoke to an older woman who came up to see me afterwards and she said "That the anointing was like the kind that was experienced in the '90's!" (which was rather substantial). She also told Valérie upon leaving that "Never before have I felt such anointing. This beautiful worship should take place at every mass".​
Marcel and I, and indeed the whole team want to thank all of you who came to our first evening of praise and worship in this new season. You made it what is was; a beautiful offering to our Lord. And in return, God poured out His grace upon us. Our worship and our singing from the heart was a prophetic act that has definitely effected a change on the earth and also in the unseen spiritual realm.
We would like you to be convinced of the fact that by simply walking up the steps into the church and entering the building on a Friday evening is in and of itself, an act of evangelization, whether people saw us or not. We proclaimed the gospel by singing and declaring our love to the Lord. We came to offer up a sacrifice of praise, regardless of the tiredness of the day, the stresses of the week or even the Blue Jays game! 😀
What we all did together last Friday evening had a tremendous impact upon the world, upon our city, upon the host parish and upon our own relationship with the Lord. As we sang, words of light were leaving our mouths and declaring the lordship of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, effectively pushing back the mounting darkness in the world, in our country and in this city. That is a spiritual fact.
​And we ourselves were changed, whether we felt it or not. How could we not but be transformed, when we spent time in the presence of the Living God? This is our faith and our belief; that when we come before the Lord, He does in truth hear and answer our prayers and does "stuff"!
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For a few years now, we've been hearing the Lord say '"AWAKE, STAND, PREPARE, GATHER THE ARMY".
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Thank you for standing with us in responding to the Lord's call and for the faith that you have in God's ability to heal, to deliver and to restore. The whole team wholeheartedly wants to see God do even more in our midst, so please continue to join with us as we seek Him together so that as we ask "we will receive and so our joy will be complete" (John 16:24). There is so much more that the Lord wants to give us. There is greater joy coming...
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So, the word "JOY" that we heard before the evening had even begun is, we believe, an ongoing word. It wasn't just for the evening itself, but is something the Lord will bring us into as we persevere in praise, worship and adoration. As the world continues to spin out of control with people experiencing fear, dread, anxiety and all such emotions, we will come into the freeing experience and the wide expanse of joy. We believe God will do wonderful and amazing things in our midst. We just need to have FAITH...in Him! And we need to on-goingly steward the word that He released upon us, which is the word JOY. Marcel and I and our whole team truly do believe in miracles and in God's desire to release wonders beyond our wildest imagination!
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Psalm 2:1-2
Why this uproar among the nations,
this impotent muttering of the peoples?
Kings of the earth take up position,
princes plot together
against Yahweh and his anointed....
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HOWEVER...
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Psalm 149: 5-9
Let his faithful people rejoice in this honour
and sing for joy on their beds.
May the praise of God be in their mouths
and a double-edged sword in their hands,
to inflict vengeance on the nations,
and punishment on the peoples,
to bind their kings with fetters,
their nobles with shackles of iron,
to carry out the sentence written against them—
this is the glory of all his faithful people.​​​​
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