Spirit of Elijah
Malachi 4:5-6 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord . And he will turn The hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”
This is one of the primary end-time promises of God: I am going to turn the attention of the adults back to the kids, and the kids to the adults, before Jesus returns. There is an end-time generation of kids who will be uniquely anointed to follow God, because adults have invested in them in a unique way...a way we haven't seen.
Right now, a community will invest in their kids in many ways. Sports is probably the best example. Lots of families are driven by sports schedules...literally. I have nothing against sports...at all…my kids do sports... but modern-day kids sports are a life-alterer. It takes a serious commitment of time and resources to keep a kid involved in organized sports in our day and age. Many families sacrifice weekends and evenings, holidays...even vacations... for the team, or for their kid's potential future success.
The vast majority of kids trucked back and forth across the state each weekend for tournaments will stop playing their sport in or after high school...from then on it will just be good memories.
There is a better dream available.
The Bible says that there is a generation coming where the parents don't hold a vision of an ivy league education, a pro team contract for their kids, or an all state title, or a college scholarship. No! There is a coming generation that will teach their kids the most important thing in life with the same zeal as the travel hockey family, or the travel soccer family, or the travel baseball family...a generation that pulls out all the stops, spares no expense in time or money, to connect their kids with wholehearted love for Jesus! Wholehearted love for the one who loves wholeheartedly and makes life happen is THE highest calling in life. Being a pro at wholehearted love is available to anyone. You don't have to have good hand-eye to be zealous for Jesus. You don't need an ACT score of 30 to store up wealth in heaven that will last much longer than the best golden parachute... and it doesn’t matter how old you are, anyone can do this:
Matthew 22:36-37, 39-40 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
The Bible describes a pure and spotless Bride rising up in wholehearted love in the midst of the greatest trouble earth has ever seen. Revelation 14 promises that the kids of this pure and spotless Bride will be prophetic leaders in ushering in the return of Jesus. In the midst of the most perverse generation, Jesus promises a spotless generation of first fruits will emerge:
Revelation 14:1-5 Then I saw the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him were 144,000 who had His name and His Father's name written on their foreheads. 2 And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of mighty ocean waves or the rolling of loud thunder. It was like the sound of many harpists playing together. 3 This great choir sang a wonderful new song in front of the throne of God and before the four living beings and the twenty-four elders. No one could learn this song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. 4 They have kept themselves as pure as virgins, following the Lamb wherever He goes. They have been purchased from among the people on the earth as a special offering to God and to the Lamb. 5 They have told no lies; they are without blame.
For a group of kids to come up pure in this hour takes some intention... there has to be a serious commitment on the part of the community raising them up. Revelation 14 says that these pure ones have been “purchased.”
Who purchased them as an offering?
The answer is those entrusted to raise them. The community entrusted with these promised ones got a vision for what was possible, and as a result spared no effort to invest in connecting them to God. They have guarded them. Covered them. Cared for them. Kept them safe from the wares of the earth by keeping them occupied with the things of heaven. Those entrusted with these ones have forgone their own selfish interests and gotten a vision that the ADULT'S choices to be selfless and holy would greatly impact the little ones God had given them care of, and in return, their entire community was blessed. To have a group of young ones hearing God clearly and singing out what He is saying is invaluable...especially in a time of trouble.
Right now, the world has a hard time seeing the value of the little ones. Jesus is different. He said "bring the children to me." If we want to be like Jesus, we have to learn this heart attitude. Everyone following Jesus is called to this. The culture is not going this way, but Jesus is. In a disposable abortion culture, the parents and leaders of these promised ones will go hard the other way.
I believe this generation is on the earth right now. I have gotten to work with kids in ministry for about 10 years. This generation of kids coming up are HUNGRY for truth. They are fed so much paper thin "reality"...flexible truth...their hearts are hungry for solid concrete truth. The more of it they get, the more consecrated they become. They want to be different...they want to set themselves apart. But the adults in a community need to get a vision for what God is doing right now. Our spiritual future depends on how we respond to the kids among us.
Many parents get trapped in what the culture says they are SUPPOSED to give their kids: some kind of strange ideal of the "all-american" childhood...the same one that has resulted in an unprecedented level of bullying, violence, and school shootings... we need to be a culture that sets a new expectation.
This is a special generation. Ask anyone who works in kids ministry and they will tell you the same thing: this generation of little kids all the way through teens wants to pray and worship Jesus in a weird way...for real! I have seen kids line up to worship and pray for more than an hour...if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it!
This is a once-in-creation opportunity, but do we adults have eyes to see it? We need to get eyes to see. What if we hauled our kids to the worship opportunities, and the concerts, and took them seriously as future prophets, pastors, healers, and teachers...like we imagine they might be doctors, accountants, quarterbacks, or goalies? The world would be radically different...our country would be radically different! The truth is, this IS going to happen with kids, but will it happen with OUR kids?
Jesus is promising a generation that will "follow the lamb wherever He goes." Revelation 14 describes a part of this consecrated generation: 144,000 who, in the middle of the worst perversion the earth has ever seen, choose Jesus in a radical way. They represent a generation that is singing new songs to Jesus night and day, walking in such unity with the Lamb that they are releasing His judgment with their words of authority on earth.
The hearts of the children ARE supernaturally turning to the fathers (and mothers). Are our hearts serious about turning to the children?! God, help us to see your kids, and what you desire for them, the way you do!
This is one of the primary end-time promises of God: I am going to turn the attention of the adults back to the kids, and the kids to the adults, before Jesus returns. There is an end-time generation of kids who will be uniquely anointed to follow God, because adults have invested in them in a unique way...a way we haven't seen.
Right now, a community will invest in their kids in many ways. Sports is probably the best example. Lots of families are driven by sports schedules...literally. I have nothing against sports...at all…my kids do sports... but modern-day kids sports are a life-alterer. It takes a serious commitment of time and resources to keep a kid involved in organized sports in our day and age. Many families sacrifice weekends and evenings, holidays...even vacations... for the team, or for their kid's potential future success.
The vast majority of kids trucked back and forth across the state each weekend for tournaments will stop playing their sport in or after high school...from then on it will just be good memories.
There is a better dream available.
The Bible says that there is a generation coming where the parents don't hold a vision of an ivy league education, a pro team contract for their kids, or an all state title, or a college scholarship. No! There is a coming generation that will teach their kids the most important thing in life with the same zeal as the travel hockey family, or the travel soccer family, or the travel baseball family...a generation that pulls out all the stops, spares no expense in time or money, to connect their kids with wholehearted love for Jesus! Wholehearted love for the one who loves wholeheartedly and makes life happen is THE highest calling in life. Being a pro at wholehearted love is available to anyone. You don't have to have good hand-eye to be zealous for Jesus. You don't need an ACT score of 30 to store up wealth in heaven that will last much longer than the best golden parachute... and it doesn’t matter how old you are, anyone can do this:
Matthew 22:36-37, 39-40 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
The Bible describes a pure and spotless Bride rising up in wholehearted love in the midst of the greatest trouble earth has ever seen. Revelation 14 promises that the kids of this pure and spotless Bride will be prophetic leaders in ushering in the return of Jesus. In the midst of the most perverse generation, Jesus promises a spotless generation of first fruits will emerge:
Revelation 14:1-5 Then I saw the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him were 144,000 who had His name and His Father's name written on their foreheads. 2 And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of mighty ocean waves or the rolling of loud thunder. It was like the sound of many harpists playing together. 3 This great choir sang a wonderful new song in front of the throne of God and before the four living beings and the twenty-four elders. No one could learn this song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. 4 They have kept themselves as pure as virgins, following the Lamb wherever He goes. They have been purchased from among the people on the earth as a special offering to God and to the Lamb. 5 They have told no lies; they are without blame.
For a group of kids to come up pure in this hour takes some intention... there has to be a serious commitment on the part of the community raising them up. Revelation 14 says that these pure ones have been “purchased.”
Who purchased them as an offering?
The answer is those entrusted to raise them. The community entrusted with these promised ones got a vision for what was possible, and as a result spared no effort to invest in connecting them to God. They have guarded them. Covered them. Cared for them. Kept them safe from the wares of the earth by keeping them occupied with the things of heaven. Those entrusted with these ones have forgone their own selfish interests and gotten a vision that the ADULT'S choices to be selfless and holy would greatly impact the little ones God had given them care of, and in return, their entire community was blessed. To have a group of young ones hearing God clearly and singing out what He is saying is invaluable...especially in a time of trouble.
Right now, the world has a hard time seeing the value of the little ones. Jesus is different. He said "bring the children to me." If we want to be like Jesus, we have to learn this heart attitude. Everyone following Jesus is called to this. The culture is not going this way, but Jesus is. In a disposable abortion culture, the parents and leaders of these promised ones will go hard the other way.
I believe this generation is on the earth right now. I have gotten to work with kids in ministry for about 10 years. This generation of kids coming up are HUNGRY for truth. They are fed so much paper thin "reality"...flexible truth...their hearts are hungry for solid concrete truth. The more of it they get, the more consecrated they become. They want to be different...they want to set themselves apart. But the adults in a community need to get a vision for what God is doing right now. Our spiritual future depends on how we respond to the kids among us.
Many parents get trapped in what the culture says they are SUPPOSED to give their kids: some kind of strange ideal of the "all-american" childhood...the same one that has resulted in an unprecedented level of bullying, violence, and school shootings... we need to be a culture that sets a new expectation.
This is a special generation. Ask anyone who works in kids ministry and they will tell you the same thing: this generation of little kids all the way through teens wants to pray and worship Jesus in a weird way...for real! I have seen kids line up to worship and pray for more than an hour...if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it!
This is a once-in-creation opportunity, but do we adults have eyes to see it? We need to get eyes to see. What if we hauled our kids to the worship opportunities, and the concerts, and took them seriously as future prophets, pastors, healers, and teachers...like we imagine they might be doctors, accountants, quarterbacks, or goalies? The world would be radically different...our country would be radically different! The truth is, this IS going to happen with kids, but will it happen with OUR kids?
Jesus is promising a generation that will "follow the lamb wherever He goes." Revelation 14 describes a part of this consecrated generation: 144,000 who, in the middle of the worst perversion the earth has ever seen, choose Jesus in a radical way. They represent a generation that is singing new songs to Jesus night and day, walking in such unity with the Lamb that they are releasing His judgment with their words of authority on earth.
The hearts of the children ARE supernaturally turning to the fathers (and mothers). Are our hearts serious about turning to the children?! God, help us to see your kids, and what you desire for them, the way you do!
Comments
Post a Comment
I appreciate your comments.