Dr. D's Devotional
Title: Discipleship 21
by Dennis Reschke
Collect your inheritance! leave a legacy of spiritual
children. Paul told Timothy in 2Tim 2:2, "And the things you (2nd generation)
have heard me (1st generation) say in the presence of many witnesses entrust
to reliable men (3rd generation) who will also be qualified to teach others
(4th generation) [parentheticals added]. Here is depicted four generations
of believer. God has called us to birth a spiritual lineage. Our inheritance,
among others things, is spiritual children. God always speaks of children,
both in the Old and New Testament, as a blessing. Although it may not seem
a blessing at times to have children, we must trust God Who says they are.
Healthy families will multiply, unhealthy ones do not. The Lord wants us
to be fruitful and multiply (Gen 1:28). There are approximately 1200 kernels
on an ear of corn generated from a single seed. In order for this to occur,
however, we must die to ourselves (John 12:24). In 1Thes 2:19-20, Paul speaks
of his spiritual children as a glory and joyful inheritance, a spiritual
legacy. There is a generation of people in our society that choose not to
have children. There are many reasons for this but one is selfishness: they
have better things to do with their time and money. We face the same choice
in a spiritual sense: we have better things to do with our time and energy.
In the end times, which I believe we are in, the Scripture says the love
of many will wax cold because of sin. Sin separates ourselves one from another
and from God. The only remedy for this is to extricate ourselves from the
law of sin and death by being IN Christ. This is spiritual union with our
Creator by prayer and the Word. Ones whole perspective changes when we're
spiritually perched in heavenly places (Eph 2:6). This takes time and energy
by itself. But the alternative is death: "To be carnally minded is death,
but to be spiritually minded is life and peace" (Rom 8:6).
I believe mentoring, or spiritual fatherhood/motherhood, is the next "move"
of God. God, in hindsight, appears to emphasize different things of His
character and His will as time marches on. I believe each Christian denomination
is a manifestation of this. Each had a revelation that carried the Body
one step closer to the Truth of Jesus Christ. Since God's understanding
is infinite (Ps 147:5), and we're not, this process of revealing will probably
continue forever. Jesus called this new wine. He said new wine must be put
in new wineskins because old ones would break. If you read the account carefully
you will notice that He didn't say to throw out the old but, indeed, to
keep it and simply add the new with it. "New wine skin" is an attitude of
continually accepting new revelation and adding it to existing revelation.
Ten years from now this fatherhood "wave of the spirit" will be old wine
skin. Will we accept the new revelation when it comes or hold to the old
and say "this is better".
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