I'll never forget hearing this simple and yet profound phrase years ago that did something so deep in me "The gospel is the story of a Father who lost His family in the garden and wanted them back". At the same season in my life I was also in pursuit of this mysterious Father I had heard about yet had never experienced. You see there was always a longing in me to find the very thing I didn't have, coming from a family line of much brokenness, hurt, and pain.
I was 4 years old when my Dad left my mother, brother, and I, and I was 6 years old when my mum remarried. I remember the countless family feuds at family reunions ending in drunken, violent, fights and us kids watching on through the boards in the stairs. Without knowing any different in that moment as a child I just knew that this couldn’t be normal. Something in me began to ache and long for a healthy environment, a safe place I could be myself and be loved whatever that looked like.
There is nothing that pulls on my heart like seeing broken and dysfunctional families and so I want to share this word of hope that I pray breaks through the fog that many are living in, exposes the lies of the enemy, and reveals the wholeness and freedom that is available and being released in homes all around the world right now. I pray it encourages you and broadcasts Gods great heart for you in this season of the restoration of the family.
THE EPIDEMIC THAT IS LOSING GROUND
From the very beginning Satan could see that God created us for intimacy and communion with him which is why his every thought and scheme was to trick Adam and Eve into tasting what they shouldn't have, creating separation between us and the one we were made in the Image and likeness of.
The earth's first divorce took place in that moment starting a ripple effect of identity crisis and family deterioration that would follow throughout history, warping and distorting the value for family, gender, and life itself through abortion. Even in the church we have adopted the ways of the world placing family much lower than our religious duty and as history shows, leaving broken families as a result. But Jesus came to repair what the Father lost and simultaneously lead us back to a place of health where we no longer had to subscribe to the vagabond "cast-out" verdict of the garden.
"All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation" 2 Corinthians 5:18
"The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." Romans 8:15
NEW BLOODLINE & A NEW NAME
I believe we are in a time where the God is placing a huge emphasis on family because where we are going we won't be able to enter by any other means. The fulfilment of His promise over us and our effectivity in the kingdom requires we crossover from old mindsets and allow God to shift us and align us with His heart.
God had massive plans for Abram and Sarai but they had to go through a name change and a process to walk in the fulfilment of what God had destined for them. It says in Genesis 12 that Abram was given a promise from God that he would become a great nation. He was 75 when he left Haran and would eventually settle in Hebron where God changed their names to Abraham and Sarah and then upgraded their promise.
- Haran means "parched" while Hebron means "agreement" or "alliance".
- 75 is the number that represents separation and cleansing.
- Abram(exalted Father) became Abraham(Father of many nations) Sarai(quarrelsome) became Sarah(princess).
Many of you may feel like your families, marriage, and home life is dysfunctional, maybe dry and parched like Haran represents, but God is wanting to cleanse and seperate you from those old ways and move you to a place where you are in union and alignment with heaven, fully aware and consumed by the promise and purpose of your life, and given a new name!
Just as a bride is given a new name as they are married, you too have been given a new name and royal bloodline as you accepted Jesus, and the purpose and destiny that comes with it. God wants to sing a new song over your home that removes you from the dysfunctional patterns and cycles of your family history and reveal the destiny you have as a son and daughter of God. He takes your broken and battered past and promises you that your family line will blessed to the 1000th generation!
"Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments" Deuteronomy 7:9
HE DELIGHTS IN BROKEN PIECES
Three months before Christy and I were married in 2006 I had a powerful visitation of the Lord one night at 2am. I was running from the Lord at the time due to some difficult circumstances in my life and old soul junk seemed to be surfacing endlessly. That night in February as I walked in the door from working late I was drawn to the living room in the far part of the house as if I knew someone was waiting for me. I could feel the presence of God so strong and the power of God hit me and I spent the next few hours on my face as the Lord began healing me and telling me that He was going to do something new in Christy and I when were married that we had never seen before.
Three months later we were married and within 9 months it became very clear that we were not prepared for the decision we had made. We were two dysfunctional people that had never had health modelled to us before and were tirelessly trying to establish a healthy marriage and family to one day bring children into. It was a shamble and we desperately needed Gods intervention.
We sat down one night and made a decision that we were going to press into God for the kind of marriage and family He wanted for us no matter what it costed us, our pride, our egos, and the warfare that comes from separating from generations of messy and ugly patterns of doing life. As we prayed together crying out to Him He gave us a promise;
"They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations. Strangers will shepherd your flocks; foreigners will work your fields and vineyards. And you will be called priests of the Lord, you will be named ministers of our God. You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast. Instead of your shame you will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace you will rejoice in your inheritance. And so you will inherit a double portion in your land, and everlastingu joy will be yours. For I, the Lord, love justice; I hate robbery and wrongdoing. In my faithfulness I will reward my people and make an everlasting covenant with them. Their descendants will be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the Lord has blessed.” Isaiah 61:4-9
I believe God wants to give you a fresh promise over your home today. Take this promise above and begin to pray it out over your family, or ask the Holy Spirit to lead you to a personal promise.
BEING LED BY THE CLOUD
Earlier this week as Christy and I were praying in our lounge room when I opened my eyes and behind her on our stairs was a very noticeable glory cloud resting on them. I could see it with my eyes open and it stayed for many minutes just floating over the stairway! Only moments earlier we were praying for direction in our family when it turned up!
I instantly thought of the Israelites in the wilderness who followed the cloud of glory of day and the fire by night. It guided them from being lost and chasing their tails to the promised land. Right away I knew the Father was saying to me "Son I am right here, I will never leave you, in fact I am leading you into your promise!" The key being that as we abide in him, as we live continually in His presence, following Him, leading our families in the direction He is going, that it is a certainty that we will come out of that wilderness place.
The next day I was reading Song of Songs from the Passion Translation when this verse jumped out at me;
"For you are My Dove
Hidden in the split open Rock.
It was I who took you—
And hid you up high
In the secret Stairway of the sky" -
Song of Songs 2:14 TPT
As soon as I read that I heard the Lord say "I am taking families from the dust of the valleys to the stairway in the sky as they invite my glory into their homes!" He is not just leading the body of Christ into health and the restoration of the family but there is a positional advantage, assignment, and responsibility being given to us as He takes us higher!
There is something powerful that shifts as you create space in your home for the presence of God to come dwell. As you give Him space and room in your family dynamic He will begin to shift, align, renew, and advance you as a family into your destiny.
TRADING DYSFUNCTION FOR UNCTION
We are in a revolution! The old is going out the door and the new is coming in! God is truly moving powerfully in families and upgrading them, transforming them, and empowering them to be what He create them to be!
There are men that haven't been shown how to be men suddenly being radically transformed into Godly secure husbands and dads that stand up as the protectors and rudder of the homes once again. There are women who have never see a balanced and functional, spirit led female role model suddenly being overhauled by the Holy Spirit to be wives and mums that provide nurture to their families. There are families that have only known strife, division, slander, jealousy, and control that God is bringing restoration to. There are broken down marriages and relationships that God is reconciling in this season. God is shining the light on poisonous and demonically fuelled family messes so he can take the worst scenario and turn it into glory. It's what He is good at.
But this is a people plundered and looted; they are all of them trapped in holes and hidden in prisons; they have become plunder with none to rescue, spoil with none to say, “Restore!”
Right now God is extending the invitation to you to cry out "restore!" for your family, for your marriage, for your children, for your city, and nation, and as you do you will see His hand move mightily on your behalf. We are already in a revolution of restoration but get ready because It is picking up momentum, and we will see such an outpouring of the spirit of God that floods into every home and sets the captives free!
Declare today "Lord I give you permission to make all things new, wholeness where there has brokenness, peace where was chaos, order where there has been disorder, health where there has been soul sickness, and freedom to my family in Jesus name!
