
Psalm 78:6-7 “For perpetuity God’s ways will be passed down from one generation to the next, even to those not yet born. In this way, every generation will have a living faith in the laws of life and will never forget the faithful ways of God.”
The theme “from generation to generation” has been resounding in my spirit. All through scripture we read that God instructed His people to tell their story of how He intervened in their lives to their children and to their children’s children. One example of many is after Joshua and the Israelites crossed the Jordan River on dry land, God instructed them to erected memorial stones.
Joshua 4:5-7 “Go into the middle of the Jordan, in front of the Ark of the Lord your God. Each of you must pick up one stone and carry it out on your shoulder—twelve stones in all, one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel. We will use these stones to build a memorial. In the future your children will ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ Then you can tell them, ‘They remind us that the Jordan River stopped flowing when the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant went across.’ These stones will stand as a memorial among the people of Israel forever.”
The Father says over and over to tell your “God” stories to the upcoming generation. We can only imagine the stories that Adam told his great-great-great-great grandson Enoch about walking with God. The Word states that Enoch’s son, Methuselah, lived 693 years after Adam, So we can easily conclude that Enoch knew and learned from Adam, who actually lived another 237 years of Methuselah was born. I somehow sense that Enoch took these stories to heart and didn’t just observe then as something that happened to grandpa. He may have concluded, “If it happened to him, it can happen to me”! Well, we know that Enoch did just that. He walked so closely with God that God just took him and Enoch did not experience death!
I sense that through the generations we have let “God” stories of past generations pass away with them. In this way, we have allowed generations, especially of late, to go through life without knowing the omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence of God. I would say, it has been in the last one or two generations that we began to let these stories of healing, deliverance and provision die. We failed to let the following generations know He is a God of relationship and a God of love.
These stories of His goodness are our rich heritage that we are to pass down to our children and our children’s children. If we do not, they will not know or will forget if we just mention once of his miracles of the past. The result is they will not trust him and not know how to believe Him in faith. The Hall of Faith in Hebrews is a list of people who trusted God. The generations following us must know that these are not just stories in the Bible, but He has made Himself real to us. This opens them to believe “if it happened to Nana, Grandpap, Dad or Mom, it can happen to me!”
We are seeing a generation of youth and even many adults who have no grid for God. They believe being self-serving as the way to live and being their own “god”. They have become a generation of entitlement and lack of respect in many, many areas. For this, I believe the church, parents and grandparents need to repent for those who failed to pass on the “God” stories of the past. In doing so, I sense that the Father is ready to pour out His goodness upon this earth, along with His righteousness and justice, which are the foundation of His throne. It is His goodness that leads to repentance.
I believe He is not only visiting other nations in their dreams, but He is going to begin visiting our children, our grandchildren, our great-grandchildren in their dreams. They will go to bed one way, and wake up another way—woken up to the reality of a living God who loves them!
If you have held back and not shared your “God” stories, now is the time. How will they know of Him if we don’t tell them. Then, when they are in bad or drastic situations, they will remember your “God” story and will turn and cry out to Him who will deliver them. Let your “God” story stand as a memorial in your family lineage, passed down from one generation to another.
Psalm 78:3-4 “We’ve heard true stories from our fathers about our rich heritage. We will continue to tell our children and not hide from the rising generation the great marvels of our God—his miracles and power that have brought us all this far.”
