LAYING THE AXE TO THE ROOT

LAYING THE AXE TO THE ROOT - AUDIO 

Psalm 18: 6 - 22

⁶ In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.

⁷ Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth.

⁸ There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it.

⁹ He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under his feet.

¹⁰ And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind.

¹¹ He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.

¹² At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed, hail stones and coals of fire.

¹³ The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire.

¹⁴ Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them.

¹⁵ Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.

¹⁶ He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters.

¹⁷ He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me: for they were too strong for me.

¹⁸ They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the Lord was my stay.

¹⁹ He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.

²⁰ The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.

²¹ For I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God.

²² For all his judgments were before me, and I did not put away his statutes from me.

I was in prayer this morning just contemplating the tapestry He has been weaving in the devotionals and how the one builds upon the other.  This devotional will do the same, but also bring some perspective that may or may not have been understood before. 

The Canaanites worshipped Baal-Hadad.  They worshipped him as the god of water, storm and fertility.  Baal means owner, master, husband or lord.  He was also known as the god of thunder, with his weapon of lightning.  So we can understand that when the two spies entered Canaan and came to Rahab, she could testify that they were terrified of their God, because they heard the report of how He caused them to cross over on dry ground through the Red Sea.  And they saw Baal as the god who ruled the sea.  They also considered him the god of rivers, and so when the report came that the Israelites crossed the Jordan River as well, they were terrified.  They knew that if the Israelite’s God ruled the sea and the rivers, then He could rule them as well.  In Joshua 10 hailstones were poured onto the enemies of Israel according to ancient literature, and hail was also contributed to Baal.  Josephus wrote that the Most High sent a storm with great rain and lightning that immobilized the Canaanite’s chariots in Judges 5.  Baal was also associated with dew as seen in a tablet, excavated in 1961, depicting Baal at the top of Mount Zephon surrounded by lightning and dew streaming from him.  There are also literature ascribing dew to him.  So it is no wonder that Gideon who overthrew the Baal altar, asked of the Most High to confirm with dew on a fleece whether He will be with Him in battle.  Then we have the great showdown between Elijah and the prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 17 - 19.  Elijah stood in absolute faith, even mocking the prophets of Baal.  He knew that His God was the God of the heavens and the earth and therefore when he drenched the sacrifice in water, it was a clear sign to the false prophets that His God was the God of water and lightning.  He alone was the God of sea, river, rain and dew.  He alone was the God of hail and lightning and every storm.  When the fire came down, the word says that it licked up the water.  (Information from scholars.archive.byu.edu)

1 Kings 18: 38

Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.

All of the above is about weather, but to an extent water.  Reminded of David and Goliath we see that David hewed off the head of Goliath with His own sword.  And so the Lord God defeats the enemy on the basis of whom they serve.  It is said that Baal is the father of Dagon, the Philistine’s God at that time.  We read about this conflict between the Most High and Baal since the time of Moses.  Exodus 32 makes it clear how the Lord God feels.

Exodus 32: 7 – 8

⁷ And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves:

⁸ They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

He was furious with them. Not only for corrupting themselves, but also attributing their deliverance out of slavery to the god Baal.  It was He who parted the sea. 

Last night some friends and I were zooming again and we found that within our sharing there were two common denominators.  The one was generational and the other was bitterness.  I was waiting on Father to show me clearly how He wished me to go forward from where He has brought me personally.  First thing I noticed upon opening my Bible, was a small sticky note that I wrote probably more than 2 years ago, found in the book of Jonah.  On this note was a word Father gave me.  It was basically about Jonah that could not really care about the fate of the Ninevites.  They had it coming so to speak.  But the Lord God had mercy on them.  Then, reading my devotional psalm for the morning, which was Psalm 133 talking about Aaron and how the precious ointment upon him as the High Priest comes down on his garments, I felt my spirit stir with regard to the office of intercession of the High Priest.  Then my eyes fell on another sticky note at this psalm, that read…He my head, and I His knees.  At that moment I clearly heard Him say, “Will you be My knees?”  This reminded me of something my daughter told me the previous day regarding James the Just, the writer of the epistle, James.  He is known as Old Camel Knees.  This is because it was documented that upon his death, they found his knees full of callouses like a camel from all the praying on his knees.  When I spoke to my daughter about this, I thought she was speaking about Father Nash, another great man of God who went approximately 3 weeks before Charles Finney preached and prayed for revival and lost souls.  He would rent a room with another brother and there they would stay, fasting and praying, travailing in the spirit for lost souls.  It was found that the space next to his bed had indents in where his knees were when praying.  So when I heard, “Will you be My knees?” I had no doubt that what He was calling me to was intercession of another kind.  You see, He said that the ground that I place my feet on, is already mine, but now He was showing me that the way to place my feet there, is on my knees.  So down I went and asked Him to guide me in prayer as to whom I needed to intercede for.  Immediately my sister came to mind.  She has been in a horrible marriage of abuse and the likes, and sadly lukewarm in the faith.  When I prayed for her I saw a vision of this tree and this luscious ivy growing up the trunk over the branches, literally taking over the whole tree.  I knew it was the root of bitterness I had to pray for.  So when we zoomed, it was clear after sharing what the Lord was doing, that He was directing us to intercede regarding bitterness in our generations.  So this morning the thought came, “I wonder if there is a connection between Baal and bitterness?”

How does this apply to the topic at hand which is the Lord God and His war against Baal, and water?  We read the following in Exodus 32.

Exodus 32: 9

And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:

The word stiffnecked is the Strong’s number H7186, which means hardhearted, impudent, and stubborn amongst others.

You will remember in my previous devotional that the Lord showed us that the words spoken by Samuel to Saul was addressing this stiffneckedness or stubbornness. 

1 Samuel 15: 23

For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.

This word rebellion that we discussed is synonymous to bitterness and enmity.  And stiffneckedness, the reason for their Baal worship in the wilderness, is stubbornness. The Lord God’s response was to burn the idol they made and grind it into a powder, casting it in the water and causing them to drink it.  This made me think how He tells us that we have no part in Him unless we eat His flesh and drink His blood.  What you eat and drink becomes part of you and so He was literally giving them over to their idol.  In the same way that this bitterness has taken over the tree in my vision.   We have to remember that the Word says that we cannot serve two masters, for even we will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.  Whomever you serve, you are a slave to.  Baal means owner, master, husband and lord.  By your rebellion and stubbornness you pledge your allegiance to Baal.  By your obedience and humility your allegiance to the Most High. 

This is why the Lord God told the Israelites in the wilderness that as their God, He would provide for them and they no longer need to look to other gods.

Deuteronomy 11: 8 – 14

⁸Therefore shall ye keep all the commandments which I command you this day, that ye may be strong, and go in and possess the land, whither ye go to possess it;

⁹ And that ye may prolong your days in the land, which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give unto them and to their seed, a land that floweth with milk and honey.

¹⁰ For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs:

¹¹ But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven:

¹² A land which the Lord thy God careth for: the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.

¹³ And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,

¹⁴ That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil.

No longer are they to look to any other god to provide for them if only they lived in obedience unto Him.  He is the God of heaven and earth, the God of the rain.

And so we find that in the word, particularly in Numbers 5 bitter water is considered a curse.

Numbers 5: 18

And the priest shall set the woman before the Lord, and uncover the woman's head, and put the offering of memorial in her hands, which is the jealousy offering: and the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that causeth the curse.

We also find another correlation to bitter and water in Revelation 8:11

Revelation 8: 11

And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.

To bring the whole devotional into context, we have to understand this on a personal level as well.  The Word says that we are to guard our hearts with all diligence for out of it flows the issues of life.  We also know that it says that out of the abundance of the heart we speak.  To which James places further emphasis asking how bitter and sweet water can flow from the same fountain.  We are made of 70% water and what we speak influence the balance and construction of the water within us. It has been shown how water reacts to different genre of music, and so we can know that death and life truly is in the power of the tongue.  This is why He says in Hebrews 12…

Hebrews 12: 14 – 15

¹⁴Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:

¹⁵ Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;

Bitterness or rebellion is no joke.  At the heart of this message still lies the issue of the Most High who is the defender and warrior against our enemy, Baal-Hadad.  He who is the seat of rebellion, who causes us to drink bitter water and cause us to speak both life and death at the same time.  This bitterness comes through divorce, abuse, family deaths, and heartache upon heartache through our generations.  At the heart of rebellion is the worship of Baal.  At the heart of rebellion is bitterness and stubbornness or stiffneckedness.  This bitterness affects our bones, our hearts and health in general and it does defile many.  However, in this He is asking us to intercede. His focus is on the lost and those who are lukewarm, apart from our own hearts.  Under microscope the brain shows healthy thoughts as beautiful trees.  The opposite is also true.  Negative thoughts are shown as ugly thorny trees.  We are shown as trees in the word of God and even our body is spoken of as having a trunk and our arms seen as the branches, our hands the leaves even with the veins we see in them exactly like leaves.  Our head has a crown like a tree and our toes form the roots.  But all of us are also from a family tree.

You will remember that He showed me a vision of the skull of a bull or cow and the axe that came swooshing past me, hitting it right between the eyes.  The words that followed was “It is time to lay the axe to the root!”  He meant this on a global capacity with regard to the Baal system, but foremost on a personal level with regard to our own hearts.  Because the axe needs to be laid to the root of bitterness, that root that have defiled your family tree and have caused many to turn to Baal in their daily lives. Do not separate bitterness from rebellion in your thoughts.  We are to search our hearts for any bitterness towards others, which includes Israel, government and the likes.  We don’t have to like them, but we are to guard our hearts.  And once we have searched our own hearts we will be able to speak like Ezekiel to the dry bones of our family or like Elijah to Ahab saying, “By my word it shall not rain…”  If there was any bitterness or rebellion in Elijah, would he have been able to speak it?  So we are to search our own hearts and lay the axe to our root, and then proceed to intercede for our family tree. 

Remembering that our God is the God of water, there is the promise that when the enemy comes in, like a flood the Lord will raise a standard against him.  For us there is the promise to be baptized in water, to be washed with the water of the Word.  To us the promise of living water that will flow from our innermost being.  And to us the promise of being planted by the river of God.

Psalm 1: 1 – 4

¹Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

² But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

³ And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

⁴ The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

Baal has always been depicted as a bull or an ox.  The Most High says that He is the Alpha and Omega, the Aleph and the Tav.  The word Aleph is depicted as an Ox.  And right through the pages of the Scripture He is making it abundantly clear that He is the Ox.  I rule heaven and earth.  I rule the weather, waters and all things created.  Worship Me!  And when we become rebellious, which is bitterness, we become stiffnecked like the Israelites of old who could not enter Canaan.  He will eventually give us over to the one we serve.  But if we repent and drink of the living water, we become one with Him.  When He is saying that He is laying the axe to the root, He is saying that the axe is about to be laid to the root of all things. 

Moses response to the Lord when He wanted to destroy the Israelites is what He is seeking of us now, before the battle axe of God comes down.

Exodus 32: 11 - 14

¹¹And Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand?

¹² Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people.

¹³ Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it forever.

¹⁴ And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.

It would do us well to remember that our generations go as far back as Eve and we by faith are the seed of Abraham.  From a prophetic standpoint the ultimate showdown is about to happen.  We read of the woman riding the beast in Revelation.  This woman is called Jezebel, the very entity that came against Elijah.  This beast, I can see as Baal.  There are two factions within the enemy’s court. The Phoenix and the Golden Dawn.  You may know them as the Democrats and the Republicans or any other form they wish to take in country or media.  Make no mistake, they are against each other as they are fighting for the seat in the Holy of Holies.  Starting small with the vaccine, that comes from the word Vacca, which means cow.  They will be joined in the end to come against the Most High.  God will raise an Elijah company in the last days to come against the enemy, that vile serpent and the beast, and this time fire will come from their mouths.  He will lay the axe to the root of the tree, that tree of the knowledge of good and evil that have caused the fall of man.  He will bring all to full circle and will use those who have not compromised with Baal and destroy him utterly. 

Revelation 21:1 - 8

¹And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

² And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

³ And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

⁴ And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

⁵ And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

⁶ And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.

⁷ He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

⁸ But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

Lamentations 2: 19

Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children that faint for hunger in the top of every street.

I’m attaching a link to the testimony about three wonderful intercessors that will greatly bless you.

INTERCESSORS LINK

GENERATIONAL WARS

 

GENERATIONAL WARS - AUDIO

 

Ezekiel 37: 1 - 5

¹The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones,

² And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry.

³ And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest.

⁴ Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.

⁵ Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live:

I was led to this scripture when praying about my daughter and about the issue of faith that Father confronted me with as per my previous devotional.  And even though it refers to Israel and her coming demise, I could clearly see why He took me there.  Here the Son of man is confronted with “Can these bones live?”  Can the impossible happen? Indeed the question He was asking me. 

Ezekiel’s reply was, “Oh Lord God, Thou knowest”.  That does not sound very promising, but it gives us a clear picture of the situation.  Faith confronts us in our depths, because it requires us to believe the impossible.  And yet, in spite of the prophet’s disposition, he is commanded to speak.  As I said before, the prophet is God’s spokesperson, between God and man.  He has the responsibility to hear from God and to relay His heart and intentions.  God has chosen the prophet to be this vessel through whom He will speak.  It begs the question then, “Will anything happen unless he speaks the words commanded by the Most High to speak?” These bones are dry, which is to say that there is no blood in them and we know that life is within the blood.  No other life but resurrection life can raise these bones.  God always creates from His spoken word.  Whether life out of these dry bones or Lazarus out of the grave.  He speaks things into existence by His word.  For any resurrection to take place there has to be a complete death, because resurrection can only come from death.  He waits for all hope to be gone so that when His word comes forth, the glory can only be ascribed to One. 

But how can the prophet speak unless he himself believes?  Here the Son of man says that God alone knows whether these bones can live.  The answer comes through a clear commandment to speak.  Unless the prophet hears what is to be commanded, can he then speak?  Can he speak from all his knowledge of the written word?  Can he speak from out of all his numerous previous experiences?  No.  He has to wait, and listen for that still small voice.  The word says that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of the Lord.  This “word of the Lord” refers not to the letter, but the spoken word.  We have all had those moments where we have sought the Lord for answers, and when He speaks and reveals His perfect will to our spirit, peace settles in our heart and faith fills our being.  In verse 14 of Ezekiel 37 we read the following:

¹⁴ And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord.

Even though the prophet is commanded to speak, the Lord says that they will know that He have spoken it.  And here in lies the crux.  Have we gone to listen and indeed heard what He wants to speak over our dead, dry bones, so that when we speak it is not our own words, but His spoken words.  How can two walk together unless they are in agreement? 

The prophet is known for prophetic faith, prophetic confidence and prophetic knowledge of God.  Called and chosen as a man to proclaim.  The prophetic calling is that of seeing and knowing the intentions of God.  Indeed they have a history in God.  It is in situations like these that they are brought to this prophetic stature, where the dead bones is a provision unto the prophet to be brought to nothing.  These dead bones is God’s provision for the prophet to depend completely on Him.  In fact, the prophet needs the dead bones as much as the dead bones need the prophet.  Our faith cannot be in faith, but in the One who commands that we speak His words.  This is why this faith also comes from out of death, because only resurrection faith can raise the dead.  By His divine will He brings both parties to a complete death so that He as the Resurrection and the Life may speak through his agent, the one who received the authority, the parent, by faith.  Because faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things we cannot see (Hebrews11: 1).  He has to prepare the vessel through which He will speak, and therefore the prophet needs the dead bones as much as they need him.  The faith by which this speaking will come, will not come from how much faith you can conjure up by will, but a faith that has come from out of death.  This is a death to all dependency on manmade ideas and understanding, whether renunciation prayers or some step 1 – 10 gimmicks we can come up with.  Please know that I am not saying that all of this is without our responsibility to have our minds renewed according to the Word of God.  This faith, just like the speaking, is the faith of the Son of God.  Paul said…

Galatians 2: 20

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

The Church according to Romans 9 – 11 is the agent by which Yeshua will bring Israel to jealousy that they too may say, “What must I do to be saved?”  When they become as dry, dead bones, He will look to us to speak to her resurrection life.  To show mercy to her who does not deserve mercy, just like we did not deserve mercy. 

In the same way, Father brought this same scenario “home” to me by looking at it from His perspective, which is far higher and greater than we know.  The Word says that Israel has become the enemy of the Gospel for our sake, and in a same way, my daughter before she was saved, was indeed an enemy of the Gospel.  And I can wholeheartedly say that it was for my sake, because Father primarily used her to mold me and make me the woman of God that I am today.  Therefore I praise His wonderful Name for all those years of hardship.  But just like Israel, or in this case my daughter, was intended to bless me in being the enemy to the Gospel, so too the Church is the agent of mercy to Israel.  In the same way, I now am Yeshua’s agent of mercy towards her by speaking to her dead, dry bones or these dead, dry circumstances.  When I read Ezekiel 37 it was with this understanding and perception.  In other words, the issue of Israel is the issue of the Church and the issue of my daughter is the issue of me.  Israel is not a side issue to the Church and neither is my daughter a side issue.  The dynamic of the relationship is pivotal to the cosmic plan of God as a whole.  Understanding this mandate is crucial in how we rear and fight for our children. 

So what is God’s perspective?  I would like to tell you how I came to this understanding and to boast in His faithfulness to guide us into all truth.  On Sunday I was zooming with some friends of mine and they testified of how Father has led them to deal with their previous generation’s sins by actually going to the specific areas and places where these generations lived.  However, I could not dismiss what was on my heart as Father was impressing on me my lineage, which is that of woman of God.  And this is truly an amazing blessing.  Going back four generations of what I know, my lineage is marked with woman of God that was known for being intercessors.  One particular aunt of mine was a missionary from 21 years of age and never got married.  She was a missionary all her life in Taiwan.  She died about 3 years ago and because of not seeing her for most of my life, apart from the odd family occasions where she came to visit, I was never really close to her. Albeit I admired her from afar and knew we had a kindred spirit.  I did not expect to be so emotional when she died, but I found myself mourning her.  However, this mourning was Spirit led as I told my other aunt that I feel as if a baton in the spirit was passed onto me.  I could not explain it because in the natural it did not make sense, but in the Spirit it did.  Father gave me at that time Joshua 1.

Joshua 1: 1 - 3

¹Now after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord it came to pass, that the Lord spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying,

² Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel.

³ Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses.

By this He was saying that He is giving me the baton of my aunt, that He has given me every place that I place my foot.  That He was going before me.  As I said in my previous devotional, I was praying for a long time that I will be a woman of great faith.  My aunt was a woman of great faith.  She had no regard for her own life and would give her clothes off her own back or her household goods even if it meant she would have to go without.  She knew He would provide.  She would follow His instructions to the tee even if she did not know how He would provide for what He asked her to do, right up to the last second.  Many testimonies of this nature testifies of her great faith.  Truly an amazing woman.  I can tell you with certainty that as I watched her the last time worshipping the Lord, the glory of the Lord was shining down on her face.  Her face was radiant. 

This is where it dawned on me that just like we often focus on deliverance by looking at the negative that has happened through the years in our generations, so we are to focus on the positive aswell.  Because somewhere someone prayed for you, even if you do not know who it is.  And when I realized that through my lineage a remnant seed has come to which I now have the responsibility and honor to take the baton and run this race, so I realized that this very baton is to be passed to my daughter.  What a mandate!  Because the lineage has to be protected.  And this is exactly what the enemy is after…your Godly lineage.  To stop it at all cost.  Because unto all of us a baton is given to run this race with endurance, not just for ourselves but for the generations that have gone before us.  We read in Hebrews 12…

Hebrews 12: 1 – 2

1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

² Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Because I have not seen this mandate of the baton of great faith passed unto me, which I am to pass unto my daughter, I have fallen short of the glory of the Lord that He intended for my life.  Instead I have seen my role only as being a mother, trying to raise my child, and frankly, trying to survive.  I have had no context or understanding of the importance of lineage and therefore have not considered it in all His dealings with my family.  Therefore also lacking in the weight of the responsibility of being a mother.  Please do not think I am putting my motherhood down.  I am not.  I am talking about spiritual perspective.  I have not seen the magnitude of the purposes of God by which He uses Godly generations to subdue and rule on this earth.  I have seen the micro, but not the macro.  The present, but not the eternal.  It is not just about raising children, but in fact protecting Godly lineage in the Kingdom of God.  Once we get this we will then desire to know His will for the dry, dead bones of our lives, be it our children, spouse or extended family, from the context of this mandate and not only because we do not want to see them suffer or go to hell. 

What is He asking of us?  He is asking of us to see His cosmic purpose in our own lives.  He is asking us to understand that it is more than just parenting, but about protecting a Godly lineage that will rule and reign in His Kingdom.  He is asking us to see that what He asks of us to do, our obediences and the consequent deaths we die, in context with how this influence and affect our lineage.  To give you an example of just how important this is, I can only fall back on my own life.  Before my daughter was saved she would make my life a living hell.  The spirit working in her was indeed in enmity with the Spirit in me as I was not even allowed to put worship on or speak to her about the Lord without her throwing a massive tantrum or breaking down.  I was thrown into the deep side by having to trust Father that He loves her far more than I do, and that I cannot save her.  In essence I was not allowed to share the gospel or my faith with her.  Slightly more than a year ago, she came into the kitchen and I knew by looking at her, that she was saved.  She told me that she went into her room and gave her life to the Lord.  I was outside at the time when this was happening.  From my example and without me saying anything to her, she gave up everything that was not Godly and even more.  She started spending hours in prayer and worship and her highest priority is now holiness unto the Lord.  She is 16 years old.  This all without me saying one word or telling her that now that she gave her heart to the Lord, she has to do this and that.  The deaths I died, by presenting the cross to her, not by words, but by my life, pathed the way for her to walk to Him.  This is how important it is for us to understand that our dying to self, is not just for us, but for our children.  Where we are looking to Him to deliver our children, He is looking to us to be the agent through which He will bring this deliverance.  This is why He has to bring us as parents to the death of self, so that we may be those set apart vessels to speak as Ezekiel, the Son of man, and command the dry bones to come alive.  This is not to say that whilst He is still busy with us that He is not working in them, rather whilst the Spirit is perfecting us in the Lord, He is preparing their hearts to receive the incorruptible seed of the word of God, that spoken word that will become an event in their lives.  That kairos moment when chains will be broken, prison doors opened and the captives set free.  Resurrection life that comes forth from death.  We have to see God’s dealings with us in the light of what He is doing in them. 

It is no accident that the Spirit led me to Ezekiel 37, to the valley of dry bones.  Prophetic eyes do not see the Word only in the context of what is future, but also how it is presently applicable to our own circumstances.  It is all about family.  It is all about the children of God, His household, His manifested sons and daughters.  It is all about a chosen generation. 

From the beginning there were two seeds in enmity with each other.  Cain and Abel.  These two seeds have been in enmity with each other ever since Genesis.  Every war from the beginning of time has been about these two generations.  This generational war has been since the beginning of time.  We tend to think it is about China against the USA, or Iran against Israel.  Or one mafia group or gang against the other. But in the end, it all boils down to families, to generations.  They all go back to the “mother of life”, Eve, through whom these two seeds were brought forth in enmity.  Just as this is true in the world out there, the same is true in our families.  We do not know who is in our spouse’s lineage dating back to Eve.  Now, before you go and stone me, please hear me out.  What we need to remember is that we have been born into a new family, the family of God, which is into the Second and Last Adam.  There was a curse spoken over the serpent in the garden that through the woman’s Seed his head would be crushed.  We are the feet of that Seed, Yeshua.  We are the ones that by the spreading of the gospel of the death and resurrection in authenticity in our own lives, and not just in word, crush his head. And the place where we do this foremost is in our homes.  This is our first battlefield. 

Romans 16: 20

And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.

It says, “your” feet.  He is waiting on us to take up our mandate.  We are His feet. 

This lineage of the seed of satan through the ages is the reason why Jesus confronted the Pharisees with the words:

John 8: 44

44Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

⁴⁵ And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.

Jesus was not only referring to that present generation, but the generation that has been from the beginning from the loins of Cain.

Matthew 23: 33

Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?

This is also why He tells us:

Ephesians 6: 12

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

When the enemy comes and mar the image of the One who created our children and formed them in their mother’s womb, it is not only to rob and steal them from our homes, but foremost about stealing and robbing them from God’s Godly lineage in us.  His children, His seed.  The enemy is after the seed of God.  Therefore it is incumbent upon us to have this eternal perspective when it comes to our family and praying for them.  We are not just fighting for our family, but for the family of God.  And because our warfare is not against flesh and blood, but against the seed of Cain, that serpent seed that have been since the beginning, we cannot lean on prayer formulas and strategic plans of our own understanding, no matter how great and impressive they may sound.  We fight in the Spirit and therefore have to be guided by the Spirit of God.  We have to listen for His instructions, the spoken word and not assume that we have it in the bag.  We have to wait on Him as the Captain of the Hosts to receive His instructions and to go out and obey.  The next situation will not be the same and will require new strategy.  Every place we put our feet, that feet which is to crush his head, He has given us. One step at a time.  The war won by taking ground gradually as we advance and follow Him.  This whole perspective of how He looks at our family as His seed should encourage and comfort us that He has every intention to protect His seed in our lineage.  Yes, we cannot stop those who choose to go against Him, but we can know that just as it breaks our heart, even more so the Father’s heart, as His seed turns against Him. 

We will not be able to obtain the deliverance of our children and different family members if we do not take this mandate to heart and also see it from the Most High’s perspective.  We will not be envious and jealous for His cosmic plan if we do not see it as we are called to do.  When we see and take up this mandate, we will not deal with our children as if we are to raise them and get them out of the house as soon as possible and be done with it.  We will not look on their various issues, be it disorders, disobedience and broken down lives as something that has to be dealt with so that they and we can just have peace in our lives.  We will know that just as they need us desperately, we need them desperately.  We are locked in, into God’s purpose.  We will see them in the context of God’s divine cosmic plan.  We will be fully committed to the role they play in our lives, how their circumstances and issues reveals our hearts by the way we react, but also, we will understand the mandate we as parents have towards them in their brokenness and speak that which He commands.  This we will know in context with His cosmic plan from the beginning.  Motive is everything and when we see as He sees and understand His view, our motive will be completely different and in tune with His.  Which is a very good place to be.  Our speaking will be in authority and will constitute an event, full of conviction and prophetic faith in obedience and with the mind of Christ.  A creative word, a prophetic word that constitute an event.

We forget that is was He who formed them, called them by name and have written all their days in His book, their DNA.  He has called them to be of His lineage, a chosen generation, to be children of the living God.  We are raising His kids.  Children of God raised from the dead, just as the Son of God was raised from the dead.  Seeds that become the planting of the Lord, trees of righteousness.  We will understand that His purpose with them is the fulfillment of His divine plan for the end of the ages, as a royal priesthood and chosen generation.  Unto us as parents, the sons and daughters of God, a baton has been given through our lineage that we are to give to our children.  For we are the children of God.

Isaiah 61

1The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

² To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;

³ To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.

⁴ And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.

⁵ And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers.

⁶ But ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord: men shall call you the Ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves.

⁷ For your shame ye shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall be unto them.

⁸ For I the Lord love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.

⁹ And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed.

¹⁰ I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.

¹¹ For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.