Greetings,
As believers in Christ we are part of something great. We are not just individuals going to heaven when we die. Our story is not just one of Jesus and us. We are part of a multigenerational legacy in Christ. It is a testimony of the hope of His calling, that testimony of His inheritance, and a demonstration of the power of Christ in the earth to change the world we live in for the generations that follow.
Ephesians 1:18-20 …the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places…
As leaders, we must set an example of this value of inheritance. We must seek to empower God’s people in the greatness of the family name. God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Israel. He is the God of Paul, Timothy, faithful men, and others also. He is not a grandfather, He is simply a great Father to each and every one of us, but our connection to Him includes the legacy of those who were connected to Him in the past and those who will be connected to Him in the future.
Matthew 13:52 Then He said to them, “Therefore every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old.”
The new things are things that have never existed or been seen before, while the old things are those things that are antique and lost before our time. Our yes to Christ is a yes to the future and a yes to the past. When we allow Holy Spirit to write His will in our hearts and minds we become part of something that is redemptive to the past and creative towards the future. We become part of the family legacy and we give value, purpose, and definition to His family name in our own family DNA.
Ephesians 2:19-22 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
We are a dwelling place for God in the Spirit. We are part of something ancient. We are part of something eternal. The foundation of the New Covenant is built upon the firstfruit testimony of the apostles and the first century church and it is built upon the prophets and the full harvest of what was set in the Old Covenant. The New Covenant is the Old Covenant made living. It is the continuation all that was and it is destined to become a culmination of all that ever will be. This principle continues in the New Covenant testimony of Christ.
We must embrace a revelation of family destiny in our hearts. We were not born to simply have our own personal needs fulfilled. The dreams and visions of our lives are not about our personal desires. They are valuable tools for Christ’s kingdom purpose. We were not born for the comfort of houses; we were born for the destiny of barns and vats!
Proverbs 3:9, 10 Honor the LORD with your possessions, and with the firstfruits of all your increase; so your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine.
What are the barns and vats of your family name? Your firstfruits and your possessions are about the family business; they are not merely expressions of you annual income. You were born for greatness. You had to be born again to come to the knowledge of what greatness you were really born for. You were born for the glory of God – to bring glory to His name. What is the focus of your life?
Matthew 6:19-21 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
What are the treasures of your life? Are they storehouses filled with life for the wellbeing of others? Or are they security banks for your own comfort and will? Is your treasure going to heaven? Or is your treasure bringing heaven to the earth for the sake of others. What are you looking at?
Matthew 6:22, 23 “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”
What is it that consumes the attention of your day? Our focus in life must be for family purpose, not personal blessing.
Matthew 6:25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? 28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?’ or “What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
Every day has enough trouble to deal with, but our personal trouble is not really about us. Will we allow the trouble of our day to distract us from the destiny of our lives? Gentiles pray for their needs to be met. People who don’t know God are concerned with their daily needs. They may not know they are praying, but their focus is their personal needs in life. The cry of their hearts is one of ‘help’! This should not be the testimony of those who believe. We were born to build barns, not merely see our needs met. The barns of our lives are the supply houses for the wellbeing of others. God is the word, but we are His voice! Our barns are the supply houses of His heavenly bread to the nations and the generations. Our vats are the reservoirs of life filled with life-giving power for the testimony of heaven’s grace in many. As the family of God we should make it our aim to live for the kingdom of our Lord and Christ. The kingdom of God is what should consume our attention. His justice system of life to the world should be the focus of our hearts. We have a great heritage and a great destiny.
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
