“But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal
glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish,
strengthen, and settle you.” 1st Peter 5:10
open. I knew that the Lord was with me
and He wanted to minister to me. I was
listening to Jason Upton, a song that goes, “Father teach me how to pray”. I asked my Father to teach me how to pray; I
began to weep as I drove.
I could feel the Father’s love pour down on me, I could feel
his heart for me, for my marriage, and I could feel His pain for a generation. I began to weep so hard that I had to pull off
the road to sit in His presence.
As I sat, I was completely powerless; I was completely dependent
on Him. I had no control over anything; He
was in complete control. He showed me what
He was doing in my marriage and how my job is to love. He gave me a heart for my wife like I have
never felt before. I began to weep for
my wife. I could feel the Father’s heart
for Erin.
I could see what He wanted to give her, I could see who she is in the
spirit, and I could see Him holding His daughter.
As I continued to pray in the Spirit, my heart was directed
to an entire generation. I could feel
the pain that this generation is going through- rejection, fear, shame, anger,
orphaned, fatherless. This pain was so heavy; my heart felt like it was being
ripped out of my chest, but I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to feel the pain that this
generation goes through; I wanted to know how the Father feels about us.
I was reminded that Scripture promises us that we will go
through suffering. Scripture promises us
that we will be sanctified into the likeness of Jesus, which means going
through the sometimes difficult process to get there.
I began to see that this generation has been robbed of the
gift of pain and suffering. I am not a
sadist, but previous generations have wanted to save their children from the
suffering they went through and have kept them from being refined by pain and
suffering.
This has given a generation a false reality of what this
life is all about. Yes it is about
blessings, love, mercy and the fullness of Christ. It is about identity in Him, but pain and
suffering will come. Pain and suffering
must be experienced and Jesus must be found in them. Pain is the greatest teacher- finding Jesus
in the valleys, finding Jesus when life seems difficult, finding Jesus when
your circumstances are against you. Pain
and suffering can not be avoided.
This generation should not be afraid of the hard places. This generation must realize that following
after Jesus is going to cost you everything.
This message is hard, but to gain your life you must first lose it. This generation needs to be different and
believe what the Word of God says.
Please read Gary’s
blog about what happened that night at church.
