ONE
God of All Generations
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; And also that
nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out
with great substance (Genesis 15:13-14).
Think about it:
Individuals from your generation will surface as leaders in every
field—business, art, politics, economics, math, technology, medicine, [and]
religion. Those men and women will shape the future during your lifetime. Nobody
knows who they are. You might as well throw your hat into the ring by
leveraging your gifts and opportunities for all they’re worth—Andy Stanley1
I WAS PREPARING TO SPEAK at a
breakfast meeting to a youth group on how they can be relevant as Christians in
this age. “What am I going to say to them” I asked myself? The continuous
thought of having nothing to say kept haunting me. This youth group I was
preparing to speak to were also “unfortunately”
my contemporaries. This means that the probability of them knowing all the
things I know was very high. Thoughts of that aggravated my fear. During my waiting and preparation period, a number
of messages kept flooding my mind and the message I finally settled on is what
has become the title of this book.
A
week before the breakfast meeting, the word generation kept prodding my spirit.
Before this time; during one of my personal Bible study times, a scripture had “popped”
out of the pages of the Bible ministering to me what I took to be a message
from God. So when the word generation kept coming back to me, I quickly took a
pen, paper and opened to the scripture that “popped” at me; Genesis 15:13-14. If
you look closely at the scriptures above, when God was speaking to Abraham, I
believe He had two generations in mind.
·
vs
13: Joseph’s Generation.
·
vs 14:
Moses’ Generation .
If
you are familiar with the biblical accounts of Abraham’s descendants’ servitude
in Egypt, it is clear that
it was through Joseph the Israelites went to Egypt. Genesis 15:13 was fulfilled
through Joseph. After he was sold into slavery, his brothers later joined him
in Egypt.
Exodus 1:6 captures Joseph and his brothers as a generation.
And Joseph
died, and all his brethren, and all that generation.
After
Genesis 15:13 was fulfilled through Joseph, God, who works with generations set
in motion the fulfilment of vs14 by
the birth of Moses.
And there went
a man of the house of Levi, and took to
wife a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived, and bare a son
[Moses]…. (Exodus
2:1-2).
Remember
it was Moses who took the Israelites out of Egypt with “great substance” after
four hundred and thirty years (Exodus 12:36; 40). Let me at this point exhort you that no matter
what you are going through in life; God’s promises and words concerning your
life will definitely come to pass. You will come out from any challenge a
better person if you continue to hold on to God’s promises. God has not run out
of ideas. He hasn’t gone to “sleep” on your issue. Whatever you are going through,
though it seems delayed, just hang on in faith— God surely has a plan to see
you through …
The
Oxford WordPower Dictionary also
defines generation as:
1.
All the people in a family,
group or country who were born at about the same time.
2.
The Average time that children
take to grow up and have children of their own, usually considered to be about
25-30 years.6
THIS IS OUR TIME
In every generation, God has an agenda. Now, the current
influx of young, youthful men and women participating in business, politics, sports,
entertainment, education, technology, religion and other spheres of life is not
a mere coincidence. It is an indication that a new breed of young men and women
are rising up to take over the affairs of their generation. There is an older
generation out there that will definitely “hand over” to a younger generation
who will become the future leaders of tomorrow.
One generation
passeth away, and another
generation cometh… (Ecclesiastes 1:4).
I
believe this is the right time for every young person to pursue their God given
abilities because the opportunities of today will produce the leaders of
tomorrow. What “burns” in your heart? What gives you fulfillment? What dreams
do you have in your heart? It’s time to put your hands to the wheels and start working
towards those dreams.
YOUTHFULNESS AND HISTORY
The United Nation
officially defines youth as persons between the ages of 15-24. However, in many
countries, there exists a wider margin for who a youth is. In Ghana, The National Youth Authority
(NYA) defines youth as “young people between the ages of 15 and 35 years.” NYA
further explains the reason behind this categorisation of who a youth is. Two
reasons were given:
1. The
process of socialization…begins at 15.
2. Ghanaians
tend to assume full adult responsibility at age 35.
Now this book speaks specifically to a
generation of youths, combining both UN and Ghana’s definition of who a youth
is. To further my submissions for this book, I will delve into a little history
to provide you with precedents of
young people’s involvement in different spheres of life in every generation. I
believe we cannot separate our future from our history. To know where you are
going, you must know where you are coming from. History helps us to make informed
decisions about the future.
Bishop Dag Heward-Mills wrote in his book The Art of Leadership that
The most important subject for a young
leader is history. A young person does not have the benefit of experience. He
has to tap into the experiences of others. His only chance of avoiding certain
mistakes is to study those who went before him…Every good leader will learn a
lot from history.7
END OF EXCERPT
