This word is for parents and pastors, for youth leaders and young adults alike. No one is off limits, as we all have a responsibility to see revival continue from generation to generation!
After all, it has always been God’s sovereign design that His kingdom should increase until the Last Day.
“Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end” (Is. 9:7).
The question: How do we participate in the increase of God’s kingdom on earth?
The answer: Identify the biblical KEY that will release faith to future generations.
The Key to Releasing Faith for Future Generations
As the Holy Spirit continues to increase His activity, we must be intentional about thinking multi-generationally. In other words, every healing, miracle, breakthrough and reversed impossible situation that we witness today needs to become a story that we share and a testimony we transfer. I am convinced that tomorrow’s outpouring is wrapped up in today’s answered prayer. The key is stewardship of the stories and testimonies of God’s supernatural power.
Are we going to be like the good and faithful servant who invests the talents … and watches the kingdom increase (Matt. 25:19-23), or are we the wicked and lazy servant (Matt. 25:24-30) who digs a hole, selfishly buries our blessing—in other words, makes it all about us, our comfort and our happy life)—and shuts our mouth … when in fact, the very words that our mouths can release possess the supernatural power to ignite faith for future generations?
Your Mouth: The Womb of Revival
Your mouth is actually the womb of revival, as your words release testimonies that ignite faith … in both the present and for the future.
“One generation shall praise Your works to another and shall declare Your mighty acts” (Ps. 145:4).
Teaching the Word of God is important, but we are not living in a famine of teaching; we are in a famine of testimony. You’ve got world-class Bible teachers on Christian and secular TV stations. You’ve got bookstores overflowing with the latest best-selling Christian books. You’ve got music, digital downloads, millions of hours of teaching available on the Internet at your disposable, live streaming and the list goes on.
And yet the Bible was never meant simply to be taught, for people can be taught right into dead orthodoxy. People can be taught into stagnancy. People can be educated out of encounter. People can be theologized into theory. People can actually replace the Presence of God with the principles of His Word. Are the principles necessary? Absolutely. However, the principles were also meant to be married to the Presence.
This is what the Apostle Paul was saying to the Corinthians: “For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Cor. 3:6). Bible + Holy Spirit = God’s Divine Design. I repeat, our problem is not lack of teaching—even for youth and young adults. Entire programs, Bible studies, ministries and courses have been created with them in mind.
My question is: Are they encountering the One they are learning about?
If anyone knew something about sharing testimony multi-generationally it was King David. One could argue that Solomon’s reign and rule represent the fruit of David’s psalms, since his writings unveil his heart after God and posture before the Lord.
Could it be that David, in spite of his flaws and hang-ups, created such a culture of praise—where the works of God were discussed, celebrated and proclaimed—that Solomon’s very development as a child, young man and, ultimately, his adult life were shaped by stories of God’s supernatural power?
Result: Solomon ushered the people of God into a glorious golden age of reformation and transformation.
Speak Up … and Create Your Lasting Legacy!
Could it be that tomorrow’s reformation and transformation are hidden in the answered prayers of today? The key is learning how to steward YOUR breakthrough so THEY can experience the God revealed through your breakthrough.
We all want meaning and purpose, right? We all desire to leave behind a lasting legacy. I understand there are multiple dimensions to this, but one of the most important is our personal histories with God. Our stories and testimonies can outlive us.
Think of those leaders in the last hundred-plus years whose lives of supernatural power still cause generations today to hunger for the move of God: John G. Lake, Maria Woodworth-Etter, Smith Wigglesworth, Kathryn Kuhlman, Oral Roberts and John Wimber, to name a handful. Their stories live on, even though they are now watching down from Heaven’s great cloud of witnesses, calling us forward!
Could it be that you sharing your stories of God’s miraculous healing power or deliverance from addiction or supernatural marriage restoration could shape how the next generation sees and interacts with God? Your stories shape the expectation level of the next generation.
If they never hear about the supernatural, they will not expect it.
If they never hear about the healing and delivering power of God, they won’t press in for it.
If they never hear about the gifts of the Spirit in operation, they will not earnestly desire them.
Your Stories Will Mess People Up (In all the Right Ways)
So, what’s my advice? Speak up, share your stories and create the greatest legacy imaginable! By being good stewards of what your eyes have seen God do, you get to participate in the increase of His kingdom. Think about it:
- Your stories cause others to have supernatural faith!
- Your stories introduce new possibilities into hopeless situations.
- Your stories create disruption in the hearts of those who have been told “that’s impossible!”
- Your stories can cause people to keep pressing through adversity and opposition.
- Your stories, planted in the right soil, can yield multi-generational harvests beyond your ability to comprehend.
Why? Because your stories get into people. They invade their hearts. They mess up their minds. Stories make the Bible three-dimensional. I am not talking about information that is beyond Scripture; I am talking about 21st-century stories that illustrate what is clearly present throughout the Word of God. Scripture always remains the standard for our experience and I never want to settle for anything less.
I’m no idealist; I recognize that where I presently am is not in full alignment with the biblical standard or the model of Jesus. There’s no shame or guilt in this; only a divine sense of adventure and a relentless hunger to walk in every grace that Jesus’ blood purchased and the Spirit’s power made available.
For those of who you participated in the great revival movements of the 1990s—share the stories of how God’s power broke in at Brownsville and flooded the altars with repentant sinners.
Share about the times in Toronto where people were so deeply touched by the joy of the Lord that depression, suicide and fear were broken within seconds of experiencing God’s manifest presence.
Talk about those meetings where the glory of God’s tangible presence was so thick that healings started to sovereignly break out across the venue.
Once again, it’s all about what YOU do with what GOD has DONE! Are we going to settle for a drive-through breakthrough, or are we going to receive every miracle, every healing, every deliverance, every encounter with God and every answered prayer for what it is—a story that will reveal the reality, faithfulness, power and mighty acts of the Living God to future generations.
Larry Sparks is co-author of the new book, The Fire That Never Sleeps with Dr. Michael Brown and John Kilpatrick. He is a conference speaker, revivalist and vice president of publishing for Destiny Image. Larry travels and speaks, presenting a seminar on Igniting a Revival Lifestyle. In these sessions, he helps believers unlock dynamic keys from revival history that equip the church today to walk in the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit as promised in Scripture and demonstrated throughout history. Larry holds a Master of Divinity from Regent University in Church History. Connect with Larry through Facebook).
