(This is part of Letter 11 of Nate's book project "Letter to the Pioneers". To read the whole chapter go to www.letterstothepioneers.com )
To the pioneers building legacy right now over building empires...
Few will recognize or see what you are building because it's an underground mission. It's a call to build low and slow while the rest of the ministry world is building fast and publicly. It's a calling that takes place behind the stage and often doesn't look glamorous. It's the call to build the family over the organization. It's moving away from the hustle and building what is organic and homegrown. It's the call to establish deep roots that extend beyond your lifetime and build a future for future generations.
It's a call to address generational strongholds, cycles, injustices, and the breaking of demonic bloodlines to establish healthy ones. It's the call to set new foundations and prioritize health and wholeness over public image and reputation. It's the call to reverse the messes of the institution that built empires at the cost of leaving orphans in its wake. It's the call to forfeit the plans and goals that produce immediate results for the building and pioneering of what takes many years to show above the surface.
Many are in the tension of this call because they no longer feel the pull of the conference circuit or the appetite for the lifestyle they once valued. It feels in many ways like you are going in reverse or have lost your favor, but this couldn't be further from the truth. The Father has thrown His mantle around your shoulders, and you have begun to burn the old plow and begin this new path. If this is you, then you need to know today that you are not lazy, rebellious, in error, or strange for feeling this call - this is the call of mothers and fathers to establish the FAMILY, set the table, and call in the lonely and lost. It's the call to focus on the health of what you are building over prioritizing its stature.
What is the point of building something big if it's unhealthy or compromised? What good is building sandcastles in the sand? Even if it looks magnificent today, it's going to be washed away tomorrow.
BREAKING GENERATIONAL CYCLES
God is after your foundations. This is the call to raise up your family well, pioneer even healthier marriages, discover God's design in covenant relationships and the House of Acts community, and raise up a generation that knows how to represent the kingdom well. In a time where the anti-family culture of the world has begun to invade the church, God has called many to the frontlines to REBUILD & RESET the definitions and design of God's house so we can be a force to be reckoned with.
THE EXPIRY IS UP
So let me say it again - the days of building empires are over...there is no more juice left in that wineskin. The grace period to keep prioritizing bricks and mortar over sons and daughters is over. The heart of God is brooding over family, and if you are looking for what God's pulse is on right now – that is it. Not a fake family. Not plastic, inauthentic, religious cliche family, but real family. We have been so good at building structures and administratively creating perfect organizations, systems, and people management but have lost the very heart of the Father. If you are wondering what to build – build a family - repair the family. Champion the family. FIGHT for the family. That's why the enemy is warring so hard after the family and the values of the kingdom family because he sees that it is the future.
He sees that it is the key that unlocks harvest and an army of uncompromising burning ones. The tide of culture is warring against the family right now, but we get to be the wave that pushes it back. The days of the enemy tearing down our homes are over. It's been an injustice and one that God is correcting. That's why religion can't be our idol and ministry our mistress. We have to protect the home. We can't be lovers of the boardroom more than the family room. We can't keep sacrificing our children on the altar of "doing kingdom." We can't keep letting Disney raise our kids while we are off doing fire-tunnels. We can't keep letting Netflix and computer games numb our kids to the reality of the spirit. We must build the altar in the home again. We have to lead our families into the presence and into a real encounter. This is a change of gears season where God is anchoring us back to what really matters. That's why you have felt an internal shift of priorities, and your appetite has changed.
That's God showing you where He wants you to move. It's a season of stepping into a different flow, off the hamster wheel and into the slipstream of the spirit. It's a season of less is more, and you will be so surprised by what God produces with your yes to the less.
It's a season of taking back the family mountain for the kingdom and stripping false kings of their titles and evicting them from their thrones. It's a season of finally coming into stability and an establishing for families who have been in the long hallway of transition for many years.
He is planting you to make you into a pillar, the shade, and a refuge for so many others. This is the birthplace of revival, and this is what the pioneering was all for.
IT'S IN THE MESSY
This is the season where we are moving away from the manicured to the messy, from ducks in a row to being utterly reliant on the Spirit. But the fruit will speak for itself. Empires have successfully created clones and obedient servants but have failed to raise friends of God who know His voice.
Family is restoring everything that religion has defiled. We are on a take-back mission, and the lost are coming home. The isolated and those camped out on the fringe, rejected, outcasted, and those who don't fit the criteria of the system. They are coming home. The table is being spread, and the prodigals are already beginning to run.
And we have to be ready with a ring and a robe. It's that time. He is getting you ready. Right now, He is severing all unhealthy attachments and ties to you. He is setting the record straight over your home. The generational dysfunctions you grew up in are no longer yours to continue in.
This is a season that God begins a new thing in your home. Kingdom legacy is beginning. He has started a new bloodline that begins with you right now at this moment.
I prophesy: Legacy begins here and now. This is where it changes. Our kids will not grow up tormented, demonized, gender-confused, addicted, or unsure of who they are. They will be sons and daughters of God who know their identity and purpose, pursuers of God's heart, and restorers of those who are broken. Our marriages will no longer be attacked, assassinated, broken down, and destroyed. Our marriages will be holy and set apart. Not like the world's ways but built upon the rock – in JESUS' name!
So keep going! Keep building! Keep forging forward on the unpopular path!
