Breakthrough Fast 2022 Day 15
Day 15 Monday, January 17
It is common for us to want our children to better than we have done in life and that is normal, and we do everything in our power to facilitate it. We labor over their education, and social status and seem to measure ours and their success by material possessions.
The question for us today as we pray is how much do we labor over our children’s spiritual status? Do we expend the same efforts to ensure that our children will be mighty men and women of God who can carry on our eternal heritage to our children’s children and beyond?
Our reading begins in the opening chapter of Joshua the spiritual son or protégé of Moses. Moses has died and the mantle of God’s call to lead the people of Israel into the Promise Land has been transferred to Joshua. Following God’s specific ordaining instructions, Joshua is challenged with a question from God. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
From this we understand that in every generational transition God ordains and gives specific instructions to His generals the chief of which is, be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
This means that this battle we face is never our battle but the battle of the Lord. We get afraid and lose our courage when we look at the opposition in our own strength but when we enter through God’s strength everything changes.
Jesus told His disciples that the key to this transformation from the fear of unbelief to confidence of boldness would be found in the conviction, counsel, and comfort of the Holy Spirit. The issue is that many times we are more terrified of surrendering to the person of the Holy Spirit than the fear we are exposed to without Him.
Jesus told His disciples to go and bear fruit that would last. It is amazing that as much as we try, we cannot produce the fruit of the Spirit. Jesus made it clear that He is the vine, and we are the branches and that only as we abide in Him and His word abides in us will we bear fruit. The fruit that God desires is born through us as we remain present with Him in the vine.
The fear of unbelief attempts to separate us from the peace we experience in the presence of God. Prayer ushers us into and allows us to carry the presence of God everywhere we go. Jesus said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” That is the promise of the presence.
If we desire for our children to have a great spiritual heritage as mighty men and women of God, we must teach them to live in the PRESENCE of God through PRAYER.