Generations are God’s tool for progress. Here are 5 things God does through generations in the Bible and in our lives today:

1.    Blessing
There are three types of generational blessings:

a.    Ministry generation: Elija and Elisha
b.    Spiritual generation: Paul and Timothy
c.    Natural generation: Isacc and his son Jacob.

Some of you feel like the only thing you got from your generational heritage is a generational curse. That’s not true. You are now spiritually part of God’s family. You are a child of the most high. That means everything flows down from him.

1 Peter 2:9-10 (NKJV)
9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

2.    Multiplication
Abraham was the father of many nations. He was speaking regarding Abraham and all his generations that were to follow.

3.    Honour
Honour and respect are two different things: Respect is earned by a leaders performance but honour is a matter of your own character. It is easy to think we  are too good to honour anyone. We need to restore honour. Why? Becuase how you perceive someone is how you receive someone. Honour release the annointing on a persons life.

4.    Fulfillment
God’s plan for you will happen through your family. Both your spiritual family, and your natural family.
Matt 1:17    So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, from David until the captivity in Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ are fourteen generations.

Notice God’s counting methodology. He didn’t count years here, or all the people. He actually counted in generations.

5.    Advancement
The local church is all about building for the future. And God’s way is always to be moving forward. Increasing, taking more land, reaching more people.

Jesus was referred to as the Son of David. Why? Because God’s plan always comes through the generations.

Start to look at your life generationally. As a Christian, who are you raising up from the next generation?

Here’s today’s post from Pastor James Machperson’s blog. I thought it has some great questions regarding preaching:

“I love listening to different preachers talk about the way they construct messages so I was interested by Six Questions to Frame Your Sermon by Mark Driscoll …

1. What does Scripture say? – The Biblical Question

2. What does the Scripture mean? – The Theological Question

3. What is my Hook? – The Memorable Question

4. Why do people resist this truth? – The Apologetic Question

5. Why does this matter? – The Missional Question

6. How is Jesus the Hero/Saviour? – The Christological Question”

Proverbs 25:3 (The Message)

Like the horizons for breadth and the ocean for depth,

the understanding of a good leader is broad and deep.

Sometimes the Bible just speaks for itself. I don’t want to mess it up. Great proverb for every leader and leader-in-training!

Gen 17:7    And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you.

We live in a society and culture where we want everything instantly. We are the Twittering, Blackberrying, microwaving, takeaway society. We can now email from basically every device we own.

We are used to things happening fast. To things happening now. And this also crosses over into our faith. We like shorter church services, more punchy sermons. I am reminded of the prayer a young boy said, “Lord give me patience, and give it to me now.”

However, let’s remember this: God goes by a different clock. His strategy for progress is different. God’s method of fulfilling dreams, and taking promised lands is different than ours. When we see days, or months, or even to our own shock, years, God sees something else. What is this something else? God sees generations. He looks generationally.

So what is God saying in Genesis 17? It is this: God’s concept of progress is generations. God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Generations!

In fact, the Hebrews seem to have measured time by the generation.

Most Christians today are too short term in their thinking. We need to catch the concept of thinking generationally.

God’s plan for our lives has always been generational. In your life, it is essential to understand how generations affect your own family, your church, and even your business and legacy in life.

Here’s the punchline: it may not happen in your lifetime, but it will happen in your lifeline.

The imagery the Bible uses for the work of completion is that of the potter and the clay.

Jeremiah 18 talks about how our life is like clay, and God is like a potter that is shaping and moulding who we are on the wheel.

This sounds like a really cute thought, until you take a moment to think about the process of pottery. The clay is pounded, pushed, prodded, and then once it finally resembles the finished product it is put in a furnace. Ouch.

For us it is a powerful reminder that God is at work in our lives. And even the times when we feel the most pressure in life, they may just be the times when the potter is shaping and molding us the most.

Like a potter shapes clay, He will push at certain points to make and shape us. He will push at your thoughts, your attitudes, your relationships, and your faith. Why? Because the potter has an end goal in mind – completion.

When you look at those distinct marks on a clay pot, you are seeing the points where the potter was at work. So it is with us.

In life, there are sometimes key events, decisions, people, or seasons that shape who we become. God’s tool is nouns, ‘people, places, things,’ to shape us.

God has a method and a pattern to building people. God uses the process to build the person. He uses the journey. Life itself becomes our master teacher.

You are on the potter’s wheel. So take every pressure, problem, and crises as an extra step forward in your completion.

Philippians 1:6 (NKJV) “Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”

God is in the business of finishing whatever He starts. His goal in our lives is completion.

The word complete literally refers to a house renovation that has been finished. It is always easy to start a home renovation. We can picture how the house will look with the new kitchen, and with some new paint. But after starting sometimes it can be hard to retain that initial motivation to complete it.

In the same way, when we give our lives to God, our lives are totally un-renovated.

However, God does not stop until every room of our lives are totally complete.

If you have given up on a dream, and you think it will never be realized, know that God can complete it. Maybe you have given up on that family member who is not with the Lord, start believing for a complete work.

Remember, if God started it, He will finish it.

I love the House of God.

It’s not perfect. And I’m part of the reason why!

But it is a place that is full of purpose.

The world today is full of uncertainty. The financial crises, global warming, technology advancements. It seems like everything is changing! The one place where we can anchor our life to an unshakable foundation is the House of God.

Call me old fashioned, but there is something I love about just being in church with God’s people, worshipping, and receiving the Word.

We can get distracted with a lot of different things when it comes to church. How important it is to refresh our focus and remember it is GOD’s house. It’s all about God. It’s all about the grace and love of Jesus. When you walk into church this Sunday take a moment just to remember where you would be if it wasn’t for God in your life. It scares me to think where I would be.

Here’s a great principle to live by: If you build God’s house, he will build your house (life).

Here is the greatest misconception about worship today: It is something that the band does.

Here is the greatest Bible truth about worship:  It is something the entire congregation does.

Sometimes the world culture can bleed into the church. So , many people go and ‘watch’ the worship team worship on a Sunday.

Like secular culture, we can end up watching a few celebrity Christians worship on the stage and feel like our job is done.

Here’s the thing: Worship is not a spectator sport. It is a full fledged contact sport. So you have to get in the game.

Concert worship: Watching, viewing, standing still, disengaged.

Congregational worship: Participating, singing, lifting hands, clapping, engaged.

Worship – it’s less about Christian rock stars and more about you engaging in worship.

Front page headlines in the news right now is a tragic story of a lady and her daughter.

Here’s the story:

• Mum has diabetic daughter
• Mum prays for healing
• Mum refuses medical treatment
• Daughter dies
• Daughter would have lived with basic medical care - fluids and insulin.

Isn’t it amazing how much somebody’s theology matters.
Incorrect thinking = incorrect actions
Imbalanced doctrine = imbalanced decisions

The Bible talks about healing, it talks about faith. But does this not sound more of extremism more than faith? The question is this: is there a more balanced way to handle situations as this?

What do you think? Add a comment and give your thoughts.

The government’s response in many countries worldwide to the the financial crisis has been a stimulus package. Without commenting on the political side of this, the foundational thought of where this comes from originates in economic principles. Basically, more money to go around is a good thing for the economy.

But my very simple thought is that it is interesting that all around the world, in the toughest times, governments are giving money away. Why is this? Because if economies seize up there is less for everyone.

Our entire world functions on giving and receiving, now we exchange goods and services in-between those two things, but at the heart is a flow of giving and receiving.

Sometimes the first thing to go is what we give away to God and others, and the last thing to go is what we keep for ourselves. Generosity finds a more balanced level than this.

To thrive in life is to be generous!

If we shut down generosity in our lives then we simultaneously shut down our capacity to receive. We also shut down our capacity to help others. And we shut down our capacity to be used by God.

Generosity is at the heart of life, whether it is an economy, a company, a friendship, or a family. How can you be generous today?

If you are in the Brisbane area, I want to have coffee with you.

I’m a church planter because I believe in the power of pioneering. There is something special about being a part of starting something brand new.

To prove it, I’ll meet and have coffee with anyone for the next 30 days who is kind enough to hear me out on our vision for our new church - Lifeplace. I know, kinda out of the box a little. But what have you got to lose? The coffee is on me Plus, I’m a nice guy!

Maybe you just have questions about church in general, and you’d love to sit down with a pastor and discuss them. Maybe you haven’t been to church in years and you want to hear what’s different about Lifeplace.

Or perhaps you are interested in actually being a part of starting something brand new. It could even be that you know someone who might be interested, so spread the word.

I so believe in what we are doing that I will meet with your mum, your aunt, your brother, your husband, anybody with a pulse!

Please email me: info@lifeplace.com.au The email comes directly to me, and I would love to meet you.

Go ahead, shoot me an email now. Cya soon over a latte!

(If you’re a girl and would prefer to meet with my wife, Cindi, we can do that…)

We have been looking at how to thrive in any situation. Sometimes nature shows us some interesting lessons.

For example, there is a place in the world that nothing thrives. In fact, there is a place on earth that is so un-thriving that there is no life form. Where is this place? The Dead Sea.

It is also the one place that does not give out, it only takes.

There is no marine life in the Dead Sea. The high mineral and salt content of the waters make it impossible for fish or plants to live. Water flows into the Dead Sea from streams and rivers, but does not flow out.

The lesson it teaches is simple: If you want to thrive then you must learn how to give. This is the principle of generosity.

The Thrive series continues this Sunday!

The Lifeplace podcast is now available!

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Think you need a lot to achieve a lot?

Not always.

Faith in numbers is often faith in the wrong thing.

No doubt God wanted to teach this lesson to a young man names Gideon in the Bible. He was just starting as a leader, and he was not only drastically outnumbered, but also suffered insecurity due to repeated failures.

Here’s how it went down. His army is outnumbered. He only has 32,000, and he is up against an enemy of over 100,000.

10,000 leave him. He’s left with 22,000. Most of those are probably wondering if they made the right move to stay faithful as the odds have just gotten worse.

By the time the battle comes only 300 are left.

And here’s the thing – it was God that whittled the numbers down.

Why did God do that? What was he trying to teach his new young leader?

Perhaps something along the lines of faith in God, not faith in numbers.

It is a good leadership reminder to business owners, managers, supervisors, pastors, volunteers, and workers – don’t just look at the numbers, look to God.

If you are outnumbered, outsized, and just plain outdone, then with God history is in your favour!