The God of Our Fathers

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    Author: Carlton Williams

    Series: Chew On This

    Psalm 78:4-7 ‘…Telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and His strength and His wonderful works that He has done…that they may set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments.’

    THE GOD OF OUR FATHERS

    We have a heritage. We have a rich history of the works of our God through the generations. A God that is real. A God of great strength with whom nothing is impossible. It was our God that created the heavens and the earth, the sea and all sea life. It was He who made us. A God of great miraculous power. It was He who delivered the Israelites out of the bondage of Egyptian captivity with a mighty hand and divided the Red Sea for the Israelites to pass through on dry land.

    Our God came to earth in human flesh and dwelt among us so we saw what He was like. He healed the sick, raised the dead, cast out devils, forgave, loved sacrificially. There was nothing that could resist the power of our God. It is this same God that has sent His Spirit to dwell in our hearts to reproduce, via us, all that He did while He was here on earth.

    We are the supernatural people of a supernatural God.  People may come and go, kingdoms may rise and fall but our God remains the same.  He said concerning Himself in Malachi 3:6 ‘For I am the Lord, I do not change…’ What He was then, He is now, what He did then, He will do now.  In this era of ‘modernisation’, ‘enlightenment’ and ‘development’, we must never forget who we are: the supernatural people of a supernatural God.  This must be the God we teach our children. A God that loves them passionately and is always on their side, a God that will never fail them, will never disappoint them. A God that will move heaven and earth in answer to their prayer. A God that will demonstrate His power through them for the salvation of the world.

    Jude, observing the direction of the world, echoed the challenge of the Psalmist loud and clear, ‘…I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints’ (Jude 3).  Don’t allow your message to be toned down. Don’t draw back from a supernatural message or a supernatural God. Don’t raise your children on a God who ‘loves you when you are good but doesn’t love you when you are bad.’ Contend for the heritage that has been delivered to the saints and documented in God’s word. In the midst of the messages of compromise, materialism and realism we hear today, declare the good news of Jesus Christ, the truth of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in our day, and the reality of world to come!  Declare a great God.  Why?

    ‘…. That they may set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, But keep His commandments.’  The kind of God we declare is the kind of God in whom your children can place their hope. That is the God in whom they can place their confident expectation. When their confidence is in a miraculous God, they will indeed experience the miraculous. When their confidence is in a strong God, they will experience His strength. When their confidence is in the One who is more than enough, they will put no limits on their lives and will experience God’s ‘all-sufficiency’.

    David explains what will happen when ‘…the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings.’ ‘They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house, and you give them drink from the river of Your pleasures’ (Psalm 36: 7-8).  As we teach our children who God really is, they will live a life of satisfaction in His abundance.  What kind of future do you desire for your children: supernatural abundance or natural struggles?

    Don’t sell them short. Teach them the truth about the God of our fathers!