Spread the Fire - November/December 2007 - (Page 27)

I was recently in Norway having a conversation and good fellowship with Alf Magnus, the YWAM director for Europe. Alf shared an amazing revelation that the LORD had just shown him about the Father’s love. His words brought life and revelation to me. In the book of Malachi, chapter 4, the last two verses, the prophet, Malachi, speaks his final words: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.” (Malachi 4:5-6) Following this verse, there were 400 silent years with no further word from God. Throughout the Maccabbean revolt against Greek occupation and the Roman conquest under General Pompeii, God did not choose to speak. One day in the temple, the angel of the LORD appeared to Zacharias, the priest, announcing that he and his wife Elizabeth were about to have a son, in spite of the face that they were old. “Call his name John,” the angel said, “for he will restore the hearts of the Fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” (Luke 1:17) It was as though God had drawn a breath of 400 years and then continued speaking through the ministry of John the Baptist. This is how important it is to God to restore relationships between fathers and children. It is all in preparation for us to be ready for the coming of the LORD. God is sending out the same message again today. He is revealing Himself to us as our Father and calling us to restoration with our earthly fathers. It is no coincidence that the entire world is suffering from the sins of absent fathers, abusive fathers, performanceoriented fathers and ambivalent fathers. We are living in a virtual fatherless generation. Fathers have divorced and abandoned their families, or they have so wounded and alienated their children that those children have essentially said, “I don’t want you as my father, and I will no longer be a son or daughter to you.” These situations have created huge relational problems within families. Wounded, abandoned children are grappling with the issues of fatherlessness. Some children are trying to work things out with a new stepfather who is often also a very broken man, also. (We will save the problems of wounded wives and mothers for another issue.) Do you hear God calling you back into healthy relationships, first of all with your own parents and children, so that you can rightly respond to His love? If you missed the message in this issue that you need to repair your relationship with your father, read it again. God the Father wants to bless you. He wants to save you from the curse that is now hanging over the earth. I know of nothing more important than walking in the freedom that comes from right relationships. God knows very well how to put His finger on the important issues of the heart. As I prepare to meet the Son of God in the air as my coming King, I want to face Him with my relationships and my heart fully healed. Don’t you? S TF - 2 7

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Spread the Fire - November/December 2007

Spread the Fire - November/December 2007 Contents In the River Finding My Place As a Son How to Experience the Father’s Love From Shame to Honor: My Journey into Sonship “YHWH” is Papa Book Review The Last Word International Itinerary Resource Center Catalogue Upcoming Events Visitor Information

Spread the Fire - November/December 2007

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