I know we've been on a journey of discerning the voice of God through our senses but I sensed the need to send out what I am sensing the Lord is showing me right now. This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday and God is about to blow in on families and callings as he pours His Spirit and glory out in greater measure, restoring life to dead things. As prophets and prophetic people we must know the times we are living in, so we can make preparations for his arrival and help others make them too.
I am sensing by the spirit of God the term family heavily on the heart of God right now- families of origin and spiritual families, as the Lord has given me many dreams in the night and visions and signs (in the day) , to point to the significance of his plan right now. God brings his plans and purposes into the earth through the structure of generations of the family unit, both in natural DNA and spiritual DNA. He wants us to know His goodness and experience His glory, so in this blog I'd like us to look at how God is bringing this plan together first generationally in families of origin. Next week there will be a part 2 to this prophetic word. This a bit long but I promise it's worth the read.
You don't have to read the bible for very long to understand that God thinks and sees through a family lens and mindset with multiple generations in mind as he makes his plans. We many times get stuck in our generation without fully engaging in the mind of Christ and his generational way of thinking and planning, but we must begin asking God, what mantle or calling is in my family line that needs to be carried forth in the earth?.
FAMILY BLOODLINE BLESSINGS
Let's define family:
...a group of people who are related to each other, such as a mother, a father, and their children:
We know from scripture that God is the father of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob-3 generations. Why didn't he just say Abraham? He is the Father of Faith after-all, right? Because God wasn't just looking at Abraham's generation- he was looking at all of Abraham's descendants and generations, giving us a snapshot of how he thinks. God made a covenant with Abraham that included his descendants not just him; so Isaac, Jacob and their descendants were all given the promise of land and blessing that came through that covenant and the same holds true for us if we accept the covenant and cup of Christ. I believe God is still using this kingdom model of blessing the earth through generational family covenants and blessings, as families make covenant with God. Each generation has an opportunity to partner in the covenant of their ancestry or begin one with him themselves, thereby beginning a family line of blessing for generations to come after them.
GENERATIONAL MANTLES
Now I want to talk about something we don't speak of much anymore as it relates to callings, and generational blessings- and that is mantles. This is being highlighted to me.
Mantle:an important role or responsibility that passes from one person to another;
We hear of mantles usually with prophets such as the passing of the mantle between Elijah and Elisha-and it usually is speaking of passing an office from mentor to student. I believe this is still true but I want to look at it in a little more broad sense of callings in families today.
There are so many examples of this that we could draw from scripture but let us for the sake of time look at one specific example of family callings.
"Bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance to the tent of meeting and wash them with water. Then dress Aaron in the sacred garments, anoint him and consecrate him so he may serve me as priest. Bring his sons and dress them in tunics. Anoint them just as you anointed their father, so they may serve me as priests. Their anointing will be to a priesthood that will continue throughout their generations.” Ex. 40:12-15
Anoint him and consecrate him... dress his sons in tunics....these were all sign of separating themselves unto God. Accepting mantles, callings and anointing's require separation on our part. An anointing should mark you.This is something that isn't taught much anymore. We must set ourselves apart unto God for service as we understand what responsibility he gave our family line to carry on in the earth. Think about it for a moment. What if people overall didn't accept the call of God to preach? Selah....before long no one would hear about God.
"Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? Romans 10:14-15
These things don't just happen. People must hear the call of God and answer it. And I am sensing there are many calls that are not being answered and many mantles that need to be passed down in family lines. The Lord began to show me people that have passed on who carried mantles in families that no one has picked up and carried once they died, and he showed me ones that were about to get promoted to heaven where the called out ones needed the blessing passed down to them. Not many people do that anymore, but we see this modeled in scripture, and I sense this on the heart of the Father for us to treasure and honor the work others have done and receive the blessing from them to carry on what they have carried for so long. Do you have a family member like that? Do you have a relative or a spiritual mother of father in the faith that you have sat under and now its time for them to pass the mantle onto you?
"I know that you have wept for me, your spiritual father, and your tears are dear to me. I can’t wait to see you again! I’m filled with joy as I think of your strong faith that was passed down through your family line. It began with your grandmother Lois, who passed it on to your dear mother, Eunice. And it’s clear that you too are following in the footsteps of their godly example. 2 Timothy 1:4-5
Understanding the concept of mantles is weaved deep within the fabric of family, unfortunately not everyone decides to carry a generational mantle in their family line, thus leaving generations desolate and without the blessing of God and without callings fulfilled. God has an ancient path of blessing and his story and plan is always redemptive, but when people don't accept mantles or when sin and rebellion strikes a family line, a plan is sometimes knocked off course for generations, leaving a trail of generational curses instead of blessing. The plan is only altered to restore the generational blessings once someone in the family line breaks the curse and answers the call to covenant with God.
We see a picture of blessing turning to curses when Eli's sons refuse to repent.
“I chose your ancestor out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense,and to wear an ephod in my presence. I also gave your ancestor’s family all the food offerings presented by the Israelites..... Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I promised that members of your family would minister before me forever.’ But now the Lord declares: ‘Far be it from me! Those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me will be disdained.The time is coming when I will cut short your strength and the strength of your priestly house, so that no one in it will reach old age,and you will see distress in my dwelling. Although good will be done to Israel, no one in your family line will ever reach old age. Every one of you that I do not cut off from serving at my altar I will spare only to destroy your sight and sap your strength, and all your descendants will die in the prime of life."
What could have been generations of blessings turned to generations of curses because of their sin and disobedience. Judgement is always the result of disobedience, and it can affect generations in a family line. Plus let us not forget that this was their livelihood as priests, so they had to beg for money and food.
" And what happens to your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, will be a sign to you—they will both die on the same day. I will raise up for myself a faithful priest who will do according to what is in my heart and mind. I will firmly establish his priestly house and they will minister before my anointed one always. Then everyone left in your family line will come and bow down before him for a piece of silver and a loaf of bread and plead, “Appoint me to some priestly office so I can have food to eat.”1 Samuel 2:34-36
God still had a plan to bless Israel, but not through the house and family of Eli. They were cursed to die early deaths with all their strength zapped from them. Not only them but all their ancestors.
CHOOSE BLESSINGS & LIVE FRUITFUL LIVES
"See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse— the blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today; the curse if you disobey the commands of the Lord your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known. Deut. 11:26
Because many in the generations before you have not been willing, you now have a choice. Are you willing to do what is hard and requires great sacrifice to see not only this generation but future ones, know Jesus because you answered the call to follow him.
"Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel. “See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.”
Curses impact specific generations through our family of origin and they affect cultures, regions and nations through a tribe of people or group. The cause and cure is the same-the generations must come under the redemptive plan and power of the cross to see change. When God begins to answer peoples cries for change, he will move upon the hearts of the mothers and fathers or leaders to make the change. God chose Abraham because God knew him and knew he would do all he asked of him and all that was required to see that change come to fullness. God knew Abraham would not only agree with his personal process but that he would pass all that He had entrusted to him to the future generations.
Will you answer the call in this generation?
Can God trust you in the processing, pruning, testing and hardships that is required?
Can he trust you to pass it to the future generations?
Are you passing it on to your children now?
Fullness is experienced through the model of blessing. When God is ready to use a new generation, the blessing must take place. So there must be a reconciliation that takes place in the generations bloodline, so that it is passed down from mother to daughter or son, father to son or daughter etc....
Who is in your family that you need to be reconciled to, to complete the joining together of the generational blessing?
Do you need validation or commissioning in the family line from to carry on the blessing in your family line, that you are sensing you should? The blessing of carrying a family mantle requires training and conversations with parents, grandparents, relatives etc..because it involves covenant with God...things need to be defined and conversations held so we know what mantles and callings have not been carried on, but especially so they can bless us as we pursue the call of God in our family lines.
Or maybe you broke covenant and need to repent and be re-established and restored in your calling to this generation?
"Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time." 1 Peter 5:6
TODAY'S STANDARDS
If you are looking for a standard to begin your journey don't look at the lifestyle of today's Christian because it doesn't not measure up to the stature of Christ. Here's the biblical standard of following Christ:
if Jesus suffered, then I will suffer
if Jesus was mocked, then I will be mocked
if Jesus was ridiculed and questioned then so will I.
We all want the signs wonders and miracles, gifts part of God, that Jesus carried, but carrying mantles and accepting the call of God to preach, be a prophet, Apostle, Evangelist etc...isn't just about the gifts. It requires you go through the test of integrity and proving of your faith, hardship, faithfulness to God etc... before receiving something that could potentially crush you if your aren't ready for it yet. Because if it wasn't above Jesus to be hated and betrayed, then it won't be above us either. And that's the part of following Jesus, carrying the cross or answering the call, that we don't like to hear about. I'm sorry to say it, but in this generation there has been a gospel of pleasure and blessing created without mention of process, proving, testing, pruning, suffering, hardship or trouble. And that gospel is found nowhere in the bible I read.
"They preached the gospel in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,”
This change of perspective positions you to be the next in your family line, if you are willing to accept the challenge and call to follow Jesus. Let me throw a life line to you as you process all of this. I don't say any of this without the hope and grace that we always have in Jesus and the empowerment of Holy spirit that gives us everything we need. If he calls you, he will equip you-hands down. But you have to make up your mind that when trials come, your answer to that trial is-none of these things will move me!
"For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:17-18
Lastly, we see how important it is to accept the challenge and call of joining the generational bloodline mantles, covenant and callings in our own lives to experience the blessing and not the curse. I have always believed that one generations ceiling is another generations floor. And this can be the case as each generation accepts the call to follow and covenant with Jesus. We can go from glory to glory and faith to faith, as He is presents each of us agree to re-dig the ancient wells of revival for our families, regions and nations.
I am also processing this revelation from the Lord through the lens that this month is the month of Pentecost. "And I will pout out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and daughters will prophesy..." Generational callings, mantles and blessings are on the heart of God the Father and I sense he is getting ready to pour his spirit out again on his sons and his daughters and shift a lot of people into their place of purpose and destiny in his kingdom family. As a matter of fact many of you reading this blog may have been in intense warfare this year, but it has been unto something as Satan is trying to hinder the passing of the baton and the joining of the generations. God is positioning us all to join the generations together in natural families so as to abolish the curse and establish the blessing.
The Kingdom of God is a reward based system and our God is a rewarder of those who diligently SEEK HIM. But even more than this, we will have the satisfaction of soul, knowing we answered the call in our generation, fulfilling our responsibility (mantle) in our family line or region, so that the next generation will know about Jesus and receive the blessing of being in covenant with Him.
Activation Steps this Week:
Look at your family lines and all the ways you lead. Ask God some questions about your role in your family. God thinks generationally and we must too. Think not only of yourself but also the generations that will come after you leave this earth. We must teach and train with generations in mind.
Listen to this song and ask Holy Spirit to blow on you and your family lines this week and in the weeks to come. https://youtu.be/tbdSQ8MLnYs
Read Romans 8 mediating on verses 18-21
Read Zechariah 9:12-God is restoring hope