generations

From Generation to Generation – Karen Austin

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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.”

Sometimes We Can Lose Our Balance – Frank Work

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The world is turning faster than we can keep up with it. At times, we aren’t even sure if we can keep our balance with all the turmoil that surrounds our lives. The world’s view of relationship, especially marriage, is becoming skewed at best. Divorce rates in the body of Christ are at an all-time high, and we as the church have no one to blame but ourselves. We are allowing the enemy of our souls, to rip the very fabric our vows of matrimony apart at the seams. Marriage is no longer viewed as something sacred, or something to be cherished. It’s a check list of possibilities to that no longer hold any value in the culture of today. We laugh away divorce as though it’s no more of value than a stick of gum, or a penny we find on the street. We aren’t concerned anymore about the likelihood that we will find a lifelong mate, in whom we can place our trust, our devotion, and more importantly, our heart. Why is this? Why aren’t we fighting for our marriages?

Putting things into perspective though, I can say that my wife and I have been close to being casualties of this war against marriages. This battle has been a long and sometimes very brutal conflict, which leads to the death of many marriages and relationships in Christ. The enemy is constantly trying to rip marriages apart, for one of the foundations of our faith is really based on marriage to Jesus, and an understanding of what it means to be a bride as it pertains to the body of Christ, awaiting her bridegroom, who is Jesus.  We watch with jaded eyes’ as our young people are being manipulated by the concepts and precepts of this world, who are embracing a Hellenistic society where everything is permissible, and the idea of “living for the day” is being recited in volume that can’t be hushed by standing by and doing nothing.  We are losing, plain and simple. We are losing a war, which has already been won. We are losing, because we want to lose. We don’t want to fight anymore. We have become so exhausted from the trials of our own lives, that we aren’t willing to fight for the next generation because the scars on our backs are too deep, and too painful.

There is hope though, there is always hope.  J.R.R. Tolkien wrote, “Even Darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines, it will shine out the clearer.” Our light into the darkness is the fire of Christ that burns with in each one of us, the light of hope and the light of glory. We aren’t alone by any stretch of the imagination, unless we want to be. Why do we choose to be alone? Because we have allowed ourselves to fall sway under the influence of many possible reasons. Shame, guilt, condemnation, fear and the list are endless as to what may influence our choices to stand and fight as a congregational team, or stand and fall as an army of one. I in the past have often thought, “I don’t need anyone else; I can do this on my own.” That my friend is a lie, plain and simple, a lie we tell ourselves on a daily basis, either we are choosing to make wrong decisions, or we are being influenced by the power of the air, or really both.

We will struggle in this life time; we will struggle as a Christian. For you to believe anything different is to believe in a doctrine of demons. This new wave of prosperity Christianity is robbing God of His glory, and robbing the believer of the true power of Jesus. Why would James write the following scripture?

James 1:2-4 “2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”

Our faith must and will be tested. Our marriages will be tested, our relationships will be tested. Our belief system will be tested. Everything in our lives will be tested, so that through this testing our faith will be established in Jesus, and not in our own strength. We cannot and will not allow this world to catch us off balance! We will stand and fight the accuser of our soul and the enemy of our Lord. We must war for the salvation of our children and our grandchildren. This isn’t a choice; this is a mandate. Do not let the blood be on your hands because you sat and did nothing, when God in His word warns us. Stay with me folks, don’t let me lose you, for scripture will always speak in ways that man cannot.

Ezekiel 33:1-6

33 Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from their territory and make him their watchman, 3 when he sees the sword coming upon the land, if he blows the trumpet and warns the people, 4 then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, if the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be on his own head. 5 He heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But he who takes warning will save his life. 6 But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.

Simply put; if we know the truth, and the truth is Jesus, and his scriptures are His words; if we sit and do nothing, then the blood of the lost and the broken will be on our hands. If we do not warn those who have fallen sway under the power of darkness, we will answer for not heeding the trumpet call of the Lord.

Is there someone that you know needs your prayers? Pray for them. Is there a co-worker who you know is distraught and struggling? Ask the Lord to give you the words of comfort to speak. Is there a marriage, or better yet, is your marriage breaking apart before your eyes? Stop fighting one another, swallow your hurt, your pride and your shame, and seek the Lord together. Has your life become cold, and lonely? Do not fret and do not fear, because my friend you are not alone in this fight. The body of Christ will stand will with you. The Lord of Host will stand with you. I will stand with you. Believe in prayer, believe in scripture, most of all, believe in Jesus, the lover of our soul and the Redeemer of our spirits.

The Lord is Seeking, YOU – Karen Austin

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I have been pondering the signs we see taking place before our eyes; the prophetic words that we are hearing that correlate with the Scriptures telling us that these are the last of the last days. We have prayed for these days. We looked forward to them with much anticipation. We have prayed for revival and get excited thinking of the revivals of the past that we want to experience again. But what if this move of God is completely different from what we have experienced before? Are we ready and willing to accept the responsibility that comes with being His last days generation?

There are multitudes that are waiting to hear the true gospel. There are many who are sick and have need of the Healer. There are so, so many who are trying to make the best of the circumstances they find themselves in, but are truly afraid.

When I think of the weight of what it means to be His disciple and a witness of Christ in this last move of God, I ask the Father, “Am I ready?” I am asking Him to search my heart because I want to be one who will represent Him well. I want to be one whose heart is pure so that my motives will be for Christ alone and point others only to Him. I don’t want to be presumptuous but be led fully by His Spirit.

The Word says “For the eyes of the LORD roam to and fro over all the earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is fully devoted to Him. 2 Chronicles 16:9.He is looking for ones such as you and I. Of all the times in history, you and I have been chosen by the Father to be alive in this hour. He has placed inside each of us what it will take to represent Him well upon this earth. We each have experienced life upon the mountain tops and we have experienced life in the valleys. But yet, we are still standing. We are still loving Him just as much as the day we accepted Jesus…probably we love Him so much more…because we know Him.

The thing is this, He knows us. He knows our rising and our sitting down. He knows our thoughts from afar [Psalm 139:2]. He knows the words we will say even before we say them [Psalm 139:4]. He knows you. He has trusted you with His precious Holy Spirit. He knows our weaknesses and our strengths…yet He chose us… He chose you.

Our confidence must now be in Him, no longer looking at our own abilities or inabilities. It is Christ in us, the hope of glory that the world is looking for. I have been so blessed by the websites, Facebook pages and videos where His church is coming out of hiding, out of places of intimidation and turning from the fear of man to the fear of God.

Our Father knows the end from the beginning…and He has chosen you to be part of revealing His glory upon the earth. My brothers and sisters in Christ…it is SHOWTIME for the greatest move of God this earth has ever seen and YOU are chosen to be a part!!