Do It MY Way - Build Up What I'M In
I liked this question from a e mail is sent someone today - who is a wonderful woman of God by the way.
Hows it going with the rising - and probably either lost or present (by now) generation? It used to be 40 years - but it seems more like 5 these days, where a whole new wave of potential world changers comes and goes, and weve grabbed them - given them life and let them run, grabbed them assimilated them in and taken their lives and tied their feet together, or we just went and missed them all together.
mmmmh in addition to that e comment, i found this old qoute from Martin Scott - father to a generation of forerunners: Its from a recording of his speaking at the church of Evan Roberts the great revivalist in Wales.
"Thats why - when anybody prophecies "There Is A Youth Movement Coming ", when i hear older people saying..... 'thats great, but what about a word for us?' This is the word for them, ' There Is A Youth Movement Coming' - no no martin, what about a word for us, and the word for them is "THERE IS A YOUTH MOVEMENT COMING" -why? because this isnt a word for youth...........its a word for me, its a signal 'Martin - will you pour yourself into that which is coming or will you not. Or will you squeeze the life out of it and say - '''' your gonna have to do it MY way, and you going to have to build up what I'M in.''''' Thats why i will take any stick whatsoever to see this thing get birthed for the sake of that which is coming....... that is going to shake this nation!
Martin Scott is the kind of bloke youd carry a sheildn and wield a sword for, because the world is a better place with him in it, and will continue to be effected long after he is not in it.
posted by al bino at 10:20 am
10 Comments:
All I can say as an 'older woman' is that I've learned such a lot from young emerging prophets and leaders in these last couple of years and I hope I can go on running with them and learning from them. I say 'Thank God for the Youth Movement'
Mavis
6:26 pm
It has been said that our ceiling is their (the youth) floor. However, i don't beleive they start off there. This is where the spiritual moms and dads come in. So there is a part for everyone in this. The challenge is to love/mentor/guide/be an "Anamchara" to them without constricting/controlling them. Yes, as an "older" i can and have learned a lot from them. And i need to be responsive to the part that Papa God wants me to play in this. No one gets left out in His Kingdom. Remember, it is the Body of Christ. We need all our parts. So, God Bless the youth. And the spiritual moms and dads.
"For the earnest expectation of the creation awaits for the revelation of the sons and daughters of God" Romans 8:19
Papa God, bring forth the spiritual moms and dads as well!
God's Grace, Love and Peace.
Shepherd Michael
7:19 pm
I remember as a younger man longing for spiritual fathers to help me become, navigate and emerge into this longing from the Father's heart that was consuming me to become more like Him and live greater from Him and for Him.
I was so hungry for a Paul, but they seemed so painfully more concerned about building, running and doing instead of simply being with us.
After seasons of unfulfilled expectations and disillusionment...God spoke a word to me that liberated me and gave me vision again.
He said...Stop looking for it and become it.
I have sought to be faithful to that over the years. To be a good father, friend and brother, so that others might not have to say the same thing I said from desperation but instead they would be able to live it from experience. Seeing life passed on in a natural, loving way among the fathers and sons.
8:06 pm
To my bro fcb4,
bless you for your transparency.
Glad you "stood in the gap" and have become a spiritual father, brother and friend. We need them all. I'm sorry no one was there for you that could just "be" for you and let you "be". But Papa God always works those things out for good. So now you can take the wisdom gained from all that and "be" for someone else.
Blessings,
Shepherd Michael
10:17 pm
You know - i think thats part of the Reversal, stemming the flow, turning the tide and all those other metaphors out there. The all speak of our not necessarily seeing it turned, but playing our part in turning, changing the ground rules so what begins can continue till completion. I hope to do a better job than my father, i hope my kids do a better job than me - that reversal. Problem is when there is still, in the majority, a generation of jacobs having to steal their blessing, because it is not given to them. I am all for the fact that father God comes in an mops up, closes wounds - love fills the defecits, but anyone i have ever met - would always prefer it comes from where it was meant to, somehow - can i say this, it carries more weight???? That When it comes from where it was meant to come from, it is at its source, it goes deeper, richer fuller. In having that - we are not having to Go to GOd to be healed before we can believe in parent figures again to see God as he should be seen without the tainted images that have stood in between (as i feel parents should - full image - him and her - representing God, so when we meet GOd, he has already revealed much of himself to us through them. Thats why family is so critical, bilogical and in the church. The closer the the intedned source - the quicker we get there. I got some fathering from my pop and some from my mom, whikle they were alive, i realised there was so much more that could have been - so until they died, i lived with a kind of frustrating hope deferred. Now all i have is God ' im grateful - but he is mopping up.
So - In terms of church? Our first world war wiped out 70% of our fathers, the 2nd pretty much ruined another wave 'went away men, and if they didnt die, came back hollow' as the books say.
I know senior pastors today - good Godly men, who i woudl say are not fathering, blaming the fact they were not fathered in church or the natural, in part in the wake of war and family trauma. But the deal is that God mops up? doesnt he?
I see, across the board, in most church setting that i can bring to mind - a lack of parenting, right parenting.
Now - ive given up in some respects any expectations of the prior generation plugging those God intended body life defecits - heck, most of my formative christian parenting came from a 21 year old when i was 3 years older than him. But - while THEY , the reluctant fathers are present - it leaves the wound open - if you catch my drift. They say a death is easier for a wife to recoevr from than a divorce, because there is closure. We, however, have the reality of 1, maybe 2 generation before us abdicating onto GOd, a job they could, if they were bold, if they had the true spirit of Jesus,,,,, actually still begin, turn.. It doesnt rest on us. Recognition of what you have not had - is not sufficient, if all it does is give you a self defeating position. So, as an irritant, im callign them to account, yes a measure of pity and empathy for what they have not had themselves - but come on - step up to the plate - run the race - even be part of the human race. I would even settle for a recongnition for the many that they are doing a bad job - cause they are, they are NOT turnign the tide, they are enforcing repetition through insecurity and position - role.
So - Thank God for mothers and fathers - than God for orphans who are finding how to be fathers, God rebuke those should be mothers and fathers who continue to abdicate that role onto you to mop up - it is a terrible sin - one that persist in the face of the generation that is leaving the church, what that is percieved byt he 90% of our nations youth who never came in through the doors in the first place. If i had a dollar for every kid ive spoken to drunk in a bar / club or bumming around on the street, that was the kid of a church leader ~(id be able to buy you a burger - two maybe - and a happy meal).
What we have is not acceptable. Honour what is good and righteous and true, expose that which hides to the light of Christ.
Gosh -sounds harsh, but we can affirm, and speak the truth in love. I wonder what God would say right now to a person in the church, who is in their 50's, who is not parenting, who has gotten stuck in the wake of what they themselves have not had, but will probably live another 30 years where they could live very differently? And i dont mean sponsor a young person for sunday lunch, i mean much more - helping them to run, with whatever we can give them... and in doign so - i beleive they will look at their feet and be shocked that their own feet are moving again.
Hoorah!
Oh - but because every issue in church reform at present has overlaps...... What do we expect to change when such a large proportion of our senior people are still waiting for their calling? Probably forgotten their dreams too on their way to cell group leadership in their 40's (yes i know there are radical churches that give you a role in the programme before your 40)
oh and..... sometimes permissioning folks to do stuff, even when we dont have a frame of reference for it, or have had our own dissapointments - is a great beginning, as long as its not abdication. Like some of you have been saying - lets hold hands.
11:29 pm
Gaz that was spot on bro.
I am stealing those words, if you don't mind, and passing them along.
I think another problem arising in the wake of all that has been pointed out is an absence of owning a fathering dream and ethos in the emerging generation. There is a flip side happening too. Some fill the hole or gap as you say, but many are living with the gap and passing it on as normal. Like the kid who was raised in a home with an abusive father or mother and ends up becoming abusive himself.
It is scary the amount of vacancy I see in the emerging generation. I fear for the types of relationships that will become normal in this generations sphere. Some will be a happy opposites of the unhealthy relationships they knew but many will also be brutally void of nurture, generational vision and ability to connect, mentor and break the cycle.
It's nice to talk about God being able to mop up stuff and I know He does and has but the church is still suffering from the hands and hearts of men...who are supposed to be healed, redeemed and new but...are still sowing and reaping death.
It is a real challenge, worth fighting but not with idealized eyes but with perseverance, faith and tougher skin.
3:53 pm
Gaz Kishere, I just stopped in here for a visit while 'touring' thr blogosphere ... and I'm glad I did! Your latest post has given me much to consider and - I hope - take with me.
Shortly after moving to a new town, my wife and I made a choice of a church home, based in no small part on the youth of that church ... they had so much to share - not only with the younger children they cared for during retreat, but also with us 'oldseters.'
Anyway, enjoyed my visit to your site ... thanks for sharing.
4:39 pm
fcB4 said
"It is a real challenge, worth fighting but not with idealized eyes but with perseverance, faith and tougher skin."
Well said. And I also echo what Gaz said to me in an e-mail;
" . . . but how well is well when it's a broken army He seeks to use . . ."
That's where God's Grace comes in. We all make messes, whether intentionally or not. Thank God for His Grace that "mops up" after us (not to mention His Grace also surrounds, covers and enfolds us). May the Lord grant that we walk in love and grace towards each other.
We need thick skins, but tender hearts.
As my pastor/mentor/spiritual dad says
"It's a marathon, not a sprint".
"If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein you trusted, they wearied you, then how will you do in the swelling of Jordan?" (Jer 12:5 AKJV)
It's interesting, I think I remember reading this verse just recently on one of the reformation/emergent sites. I say interesting because a few months ago this verse came to me in a Rhema Word/prophecy. It was even confirmed in a few visions. I was allowed to release the word to our fellowship, and I did. But there was something that was bugging me about it. So I asked Papa God "How can I possibly run against (compete with) a horse?" Papa God simply said "Elijah". Then the account of Elijah came to me when he was praying for rain to come. When his servant told him of the coming cloud, Elijah turned and said to King Ahab
"Ya' better saddle-up anf boogey because a deluge is coming" [my paarphrase]. So King Ahab got in his chariot (and don't ya know that, as a king, he would have the best chariot and fastest horse around?) and off he went. Then the Holy Spirit came upon Elijah, and running, he beat the king back to the fort!
My point? We can't do this (or anything) without His Holy Spirit
7:41 pm
So true Michael, great thoughts.
I think only those with the sound of rain in their spiritual ears can really run at the pace needed in this hour. We will get there before the chariots and horses because we are dreamers and dreamers live in the future and God gives us legs to get to the places we see and hear.
But right now, I think we are in need of more people that can run and less people that can hear.
There are many that can see things and hear things but how many can get some where with the same spiritual grace as they proclaim?
I want to speak things to the Ahabs and then arrive before them. I want to run faster than my words...oh there is such a need for that in this hour. Most people are far behind their words.
4:06 am
Hey this is great - im really enjoying the too and fro chat.
Thanks for taking the time.
Forerunners + Scouts - gonna reply in an article as youve got my juices flowing again.
g
7:09 am
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