“And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers” (Mal. 4:6, KJV).
Recently, the Lord has been working overtime in many family relationships, especially between the parents and the children. Speaking as a father, looking back, I can become overwhelmed by how I was honestly blinded by my weaknesses, or how I felt powerless to change my children while I was raising them.
When you hear about how God is going to grow us up in His body, you can count on God showing up in the core of the church — the family we live with every day. We can go no further in God than our personal “home address.”
Restoration of Relationships: Destined for Generational Blessings
It seems the Lord is opening our eyes to see how our weaknesses and character flaws in parenting have affected our children in later years. The Lord’s purpose, as these things surface, is to restore and heal our relationships. The enemy’s plan is to condemn us and to make us feel like failures in the home, ministry and community.
Change seems so slow, even when the Lord brings character flaws to the surface, and sometimes our children remind us of them … in case we have forgotten. We become overwhelmed by things we may have done wrong; we cannot go back now and change them, especially when our children are grown. Regret can be overwhelming, and as a father, it seems to magnify itself.
As I was praying recently over my own past and present shortcomings as a father, my feelings of failure were divinely interrupted by a still, small voice that spoke volumes to my broken heart.
God said, “Son, you have been focusing on your weaknesses that your children seem to have inherited. Have you forgotten that they also inherited your strengths that you were born-again with? Stop thinking of all those generational curses the enemy has been filling your mind with that I took to the cross. Start renewing your mind about your children, for they are now only destined to receive generational blessings; the seed and the seed’s seed of the righteous are blessed because of My righteousness that I have given you!”
“The seed of the righteous shall be delivered” (Prov. 11:21, KJV).
Destiny Now Arising
I was reminded how we are all blessed because we are the seed of Abraham — the father of faith! We are blessed because in being his seed, we have the same faith as he did. Besides that, God has given every man, woman and child a measure of His faith (Rom. 12:3). In addition, Jesus actually tells us that we have the very faith of God, because to “Have faith in God” (Mark 11:22, KJV) means to have God’s faith! Paul said, “The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God” (Gal. 2:20, KJV).
“A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children” (Prov. 13:22, NKJV).
I just want you to know that you have one strength available to you that will overcome all of your apparent earthly failures and regrets — and that is your faith! You have this faith no matter how you raised or didn’t raise your children. Your faith in God (in what He has done, not in what you have done or have not done) is part of your children’s inheritance now!
At this moment, in your children’s DNA there is the very faith to believe for the impossible. This is a faith that will overcome all “apparent” weaknesses and failures! Know that this faith which saved you will save your children also. It’s a saving faith! In fact, you have given your children the most powerful thing in the universe — God’s faith! The major substance that pleases God is faith. The faith that is in you is already in your children’s DNA; it is their “Destiny Now Arising” (DNA).
“You May Have Failed Your Children, but I Won’t!”
God says, “‘I am turning the hearts of the fathers to their children’ means that I am taking what is good and pure and lovely and of good report, from inside the hearts of the fathers, and I am pouring it into the hearts of their children. And ‘I am turning the hearts of the children to their fathers’ means that I am taking what is good and pure and lovely and of good report, from inside the hearts of the children, and pouring it into the hearts of their fathers.
“You and your children will experience overwhelming love that will overcome evil with good, and mothers will be caught in the crossfire of this ‘love explosion’ as My love flows unhindered between the fathers and the children.
“I will cause your children to remember the good times and bring to their remembrance precious memories that the enemy has not allowed them to remember at all. Likewise, I will cause the fathers to remember precious moments and the good things about their children that will become strongholds in their minds to know that My hand is upon them, no matter where they are or what they are doing. See them and treat them as though they are already saved, healed, delivered and complete in Me! Have I ever failed you? I will never fail your children either, or even your children’s children!”
“For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith” (1 John 5:4, KJV).
The Lord is also including mothers in this word. Paul told Timothy, “When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also” (2 Tim. 1:5, KJV). I believe Paul was reminding Timothy that “faith runs in your family”!
Faith is contagious, and faith runs in your family also! I sense that many of our children will end up in the Hall of Faith that continues to be written. (See Hebrews 11.) {eoa}
Bill Yount has been a member of Bridge of Life Church in Hagerstown, Maryland, for the past 40 years, where he is in leadership. He faithfully served in prison ministry at Mount Hope Inc. for 23 years and now travels full-time, ministering in churches and Aglow circles. Bill’s calling is to encourage the body of Christ to move forward into God’s destiny as they are sent into the harvest field. “Humility and Humor” characterize his ministry as he brings forth a fresh word that is in season, proclaiming the Word of the Lord! The shofar (ram’s horn) is at times used in his meetings, breaking the powers of darkness over regions, churches and households. Many of God’s messages that Bill ministers prophetically come out of everyday life with his family and friends.
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