THE GENERATION GAP

Publish date: 05/01/2004

And you shall know, understand, and realize that I am in the midst of Israel and that I the Lord am your God and there is none else. My people shall never be put to shame. 28 And afterward I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. 29 Even upon the menservants and upon the maidservants in those days will I pour out My Spirit. Joel 2:27-29 AMP

The Lord spoke through the mouth of Joel about the coming of the day of Pentecost and the rain of His Spirit that would be poured out upon God’s people from that moment on. The Spirit of God would fall on His people—on every generation—from the very old to the very young. The Holy Spirit would not differentiate between men or women, rich or poor, nobles or servants, but He would fill, and use, every one of them to preach, pray and prophesy.

Many of the religious denominations, that we know today, who oppose the gifts and manifestations of the Spirit, and who have none of the power of God in their midst, were actually birthed in the fire of revival! Why do people stray so far from their roots? How can you start in the fire and end up with only smoke and be satisfied with that? How can you be happy with less than what you could have had? Somehow the power of God was not transferred to the next generation. It became the ultimate generation gap.

Not only does each generation have the responsibility to press into God for themselves and receive the baptism of fire promised in John 3:16, but they have the responsibility to preach the next generation hungry! Unless each generation presses in for themselves, they will lose what they never had. Nobody expects to be appointed to a position in a company based on their parent’s education—they must apply for the job based on their own education. However, people think that they can get by on their parent’s relationship with God.

You cannot be lukewarm where God is concerned. God has no grandchildren, He only has children. Every person must get hungry for God for themselves and press in to hear His voice, feel His touch, and know His plan for their life. Lukewarm people are so highly sensitive to persecution that they pull back from anything remotely controversial and miss out on the blessings of the liberty of the Spirit of God. Some people are not even being persecuted, but they are motivated by such a strong desire to be acceptable, that they will do anything to please people and make people like them.

On the other hand, if you have had an encounter with the Holy Spirit and if you have a revelation and an appreciation of what Jesus did for you­—how He suffered in His flesh, in His mind, and in His spirit, and how He endured violent abuse and public humiliation—then you would be far less likely to care what other people think of Him or you. Jesus promised that He would bless us back thirty, sixty, or one hundred-fold of whatever we gave up for Him, but with persecution. If you want the blessing, you must be prepared to rise above the persecution without compromising, whilst you continue to contend for the Holy Spirit and for the supernatural power of God.

God promises a crown of life to every Christian who does not love their own life more than they love Jesus and who endures to the end. Only when we have been filled with the Holy Spirit, and have had a personal encounter with Him, will we care more about what God thinks than what people think and we will go on to do the will of God in our generation, no matter what!