Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
During the Shepherd’s Rod Conference Bob and Bonnie Jones came to our home for supper. When Bob walked into our living room and sat down the first words out of his mouth were, “Family really is important.” Becky and I knew that Bob was speaking prophetically to us. We made a decision late last year to make some adjustments in our life. Like most of us we have a busy life and the wonderful thing is much of what we are doing involves the purposes of God. However, without any conscious intent we began to spend less and less time with our immediate family. We made the decision last year to make sure our family has more priority than the church and our ministry. We knew the Lord was confirming to us that He was pleased with that decision.
Our spiritual foundation and destiny are vitally connected (Psalms 11:3). We are in a time where both our spiritual foundation is being examined and our destiny is being determined and nothing is as foundational in our lives as relationships. Bonnie Jones shared some great insight on this. “As the enemy is coming to destroy by division the family unit, God is looking for a few good people who will not be lifted up in pride when He exalts them in ministry…Cracks in our foundation appear when we get things out of order. How would you honor God? You would honor God by spending time with Him; for in ministry we must first spend time with God in relationship. That is our first priority. Our second priority is honoring our spouse. Our third priority is honoring our children. Our fourth priority is our relationship with His church. And our fifth priority is you and your ministry. If you keep these priorities in proper order you will not fall.” From the 2009 Shepherd’s Rod.
When we honor God we can expect to be honored by God (John 12:26). About a month ago on a Sunday morning before church I was spending time with the Lord and He said, “Pray for your mama.” I responded, “Lord I always pray for my mama, she is ninety years old.” The Lord responded, “No, really pray for your mama.” So I started praying and immediately a very strong anointing came upon me and I begin to “really pray for my mama.” As I prayed I began to see my siblings and their family and I “really prayed” for them also. I felt the pain of rejection, shame and anger on my family. I knew the Lord wanted me to stand in the gap and repent for all the sins and injustices we had committed. As I did this I saw a vision of an old wooden dam beginning to break apart and the water started flowing slowly at first but soon it completely broke through the dam. The Lord spoke to me and said, “Your family’s generational inheritance that has been held back is being released and I am going to confirm this to you today.”
Later that morning between services I noticed a man walk into the room and I thought, “He looks like my cousin,” but I was immediately distracted. A few moments later a lady came up to me and asked me a question, “Are you Ruth’s son?” I said “yes” (Ruth is my mama’s name). She responded, “I knew that was who you are.” I looked beside her and it was my cousin, my mama’s brother’s son, who I had not seen in many years. I knew this was the confirmation the Lord had told me would happen.
The Scripture does not record Abraham blessing his son Isaac. As the son of promise, Isaac inherited all that his father Abraham possessed. However, Isaac did initiate the first generational blessing (Genesis 27:27-29) and from then on, the Hebrew father gave a birthright and blessings to their sons. For us to fully be released into our destiny we need the generational inheritance from our family. Family really is important.
Many Blessings, BW