ETERNAL GENERATIONAL MULTIPLICATION
God’s grace is always in the now. (Every day has its own trouble Mat 6:34 His mercies are new every morning Lam 3:22-23) The truth is a paradox where two opposing truths are equal in value and importance. The opposite truth to living in the now is focusing on eternity. We are living in the now with our eye on eternity. This seems impossible and contradictory; how can you be in the now, and yet focused on eternity? Is eternity not in the future? No, eternity is now.
ETERNAL NOW
John 8:58 before Abraham was I am
Rev 1:4 his who is, and who was, and who is to come
Rev 1:8 Alpha & Omega, who is, who was, and who is to come
2 Pet 3:8 with the Lord a day is like a thousand years and a thought years like a day
Exo 3:14 I am what I am
God is past, present and future all at the same time. “He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.” Eccl 3;10-11
God declares the end from the beginning, Isa 46:10
THINK GENERATIONS
One of the practical ways of living in the now yet having your sight on eternity is making disciples. Making disciples is the purest way of duplicating yourself, your life, your principles, and ways for generations. Raising your children in the ways of the Lord. Having children, and raising them is a form of discipleship. God values family very highly. The family is God’s way of maturing us into adulthood. Physiologists and educators can list the adverse effects of a broken family, absent parents, child abuse due to bad parental role models and low-income family structures. We can suppose that most of the social problems we experience today are because of a broken family unit. This lack of being conscious of the following generation is clearly evident studying the Kings. Not many leaders in the Bible succeeded to raise their kids in the fear of God. Eli, the High Priest, became vile because he did not restrain them (1 Sam 3:13) Samuel’s children also did not serve God. They turned aside after dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice. This speaks of a lack of godly character. (1 Sam 8:3)
Interesting that some of the righteous Kings in Judah did not follow their own father’s legacy but chose to go back and follow in David’s footsteps. And he did what was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in all the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or the left. (2 Kings 22:2) There were also Kings who did not consider the legacy they left for their Children, knowing that their children would suffer the consequences of their father’s doings. So Hezekiah showed off all the riches of Judah to the son of King of Babylon and consequently received the damnation by the Prophet Isaiah that this very Kingdom will come and carry all these riches away. He was only so happy that the judgment will not happen in his lifetime. So Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the LORD which you have spoken is good!” For he said, “Will there not be peace and truth at least in my days?” (2 Kings 20:15)
GENERATIONAL CURSES
Numbers 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and — fourth generation of them that hate me;
GENERATIONAL BLESSINGS
Ps 12:7 Preserve the Word from generation to generation
Ps 78:3-8 Declaring and showing to the following generation the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done. — That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:
THE CULTURE WE INHABIT CREATES THE HABITAT FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS
While adults can switch religions, this is rare. The recent Pew Research study of the changes in world religions estimates that of the 8.1 billion believers in 2050, just 65 million (less than one percent) will have switched into their belief (chart).
People don’t pick their religion by throwing a dart at a grid of the hundreds or thousands of religions of history. They don’t even roll the dice and pick a religion based on its popularity at the moment (31% Christian, 23% Muslim, 15% Hindu, etc.). The religion of young adults is very strongly correlated with that of their culture.
In a groundbreaking study, Johns Hopkins University researchers followed nearly 800 Baltimore schoolchildren for a quarter of a century and discovered that their fates were substantially determined by the family they were born into.
“A family’s resources and the doors they open cast a long shadow over children’s life trajectories,” Johns Hopkins sociologist Karl Alexander says in a forthcoming book, The Long Shadow: Family Background, Disadvantaged Urban Youth, and the Transition to Adulthood.
http://hub.jhu.edu/2014/06/02/karl-alexander-long-shadow-research/
Only 33 children moved from birth families in the low-income bracket to the high-income bracket as young adults; if a family had no bearing on children’s mobility prospects, almost 70 would be expected. And of those who started out well off, only 19 dropped to the low-income bracket, a fourth of the number expected.
“The implication is where you start in life is where you end up in life,” Alexander said. “It’s very sobering to see how this all unfolds.”
CHURCH FAMILY GOD’s HABITAT
Fathers, Young Men and Children – 1 John 2:14-15
the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things— Tit 2:3
In church we create an habitat of extended family, where all the adults demonstrate the same godly values and character to the children. Together reinforcing godliness in the children. Everyone sees every child as their child. We take collective care of another’s children.
We therefor worship expressively as a family. Children models and follow the parents in worshipping God. Children grow up in an environment where worship is normal, spontaneous and engaging. God is intimately close in our worship and children who are sensory focused experience God in various ways in the meeting. People telling emotional testimonies being vulnerable is a powerful sign to children. The power of the spirit manifesting in meetings through healing, miracles, and the gifts of the spirit effects them deeply.
DECLARING GOD’s WORKS
We are sometimes more concerned as parents to see our children succeed in the goals and accomplishments of secularism, materialism, individualism, and selfish ambition.
Bill Johnson shares on Ps 78 and the importance of children experiencing the works and deeds of God, so that they will have hope and keep on serving God. He then also reveals how he and his wife deliberately exposed their kids to:
– Family Church Life
– The Supernatural
– Poverty
We are not only called to provide for our children financially, once they are earning their own income they abandon God and church. We should provide our children with an eternal rooted lifestyle. Children learn through their experiences not their ears. Prepare them for eternity.
In our journey with God we are very conscious of those who walked before us, and also those who are following. I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.” John 4:38
