Text: Hebrews 11

Key verse: “It was faith that made Joseph when he was about to die, speak of the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, and leave instructions about what should be done with his body.” verse 22

Many people live and die full of dreams, desires, and wishes, but they never grow to become expectations. An expectation is a strong belief that something will happen or be the case. Joseph did not just believe in God, he believed the promises of God would all come to pass during or after his lifetime. 

God made a promise to Abraham his great grandfather, and Joseph lived to see some part of that promise manifest, and even though the rest looked practically impossible, he had a strong belief that God was able to accomplish it to the fullest.

And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; Genesis 15:13

For as long as he lived he held unto his belief, long enough to see his great-grandchildren.

And Joseph saw Ephraim’s children of the third generation: the children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were brought up upon Joseph’s knees.

²⁴ And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
²⁵ And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence.

Joseph models for us the power of expectations. It was not just a dream hidden in his heart but a belief he had nurtured and expected to happen in his lifetime, when his time of passing came, though he hadn’t seen it he passed it on along to his family. 

I want to emphasize the power of Passing-it-on. In our previous post, my emphasis was on the need to give upfront a gift to your next generation through prophetic blessings. Today, l want to turn your attention to the necessity of passing on your faith to your family. It is not a parental assignment that is optional!

I have chosen him so that he may command his sons and his descendants to obey me and to do what is right and just. If they do, I will do everything for him that I have promised.” Genesis 18:19

We are a generation that has grown to value education so much that, parents are ready to serve, do all kinds of menial jobs, go into debt, and even defraud others to ensure they provide the western system of education for their children. So many live so leanly just to ensure their children attend the Ivy League schools abroad. 

While this is good to position them for top jobs in society, we are witnesses to the declining moral values of this next generation despite the premium education they received. What is missing? 

Failure to build a strong and deep spiritual belief system early in our children is the reason we have a mentally weak, clueless, non-resilient next generation, who are being pushed around by multiple alternatives to the real deal.

Your children, grandchildren or relatives living under your tutelage have deep spiritual needs that must not be ignored, when you fail to invest in them you make them vulnerable to the attack of evil minds that are lurking as predators all around the place even in our churches. 

The kingdom God promised David started to disintegrate not because of lack of wealth, or education or military might, the decay started when he failed to pass on his faith especially his spiritual experience to his next generation. 

What steps are you taking to ensure that your children build the same altars you have raised? What sacrifice of time and effort are you putting in to guard against lies and faulty beliefs being peddled in the media especially social media?

We are up against an organized kingdom waging mental warfare against our children. If we don’t go up in arms now to equip and fortify them with great faith reflected by the expectations we confess, the danger is our faith may end with us. Or worse still their actions may shame and even ridicule the faith we have lived and sacrificed for. 

We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. ⁴ We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. ⁵ We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:4,5

Build your faith, speak it forth, pass it on till your children own it, and make it theirs. Do not fail to wage war against rebellious thoughts, that goes against nature, godliness and values passed down the ages by our progenitors, it is then you can go to the grave in peace just like Joseph at a ripe good old age.

Stay Blessed!

Roses & Thorns