Prophetically Paving the Future's Road

When Abraham met Melchizedek the Priest, he gave him a tenth of his spoils of war. The Bible tells us that Abraham’s giving was credited to his great grandson, Levi, as though Levi had given this spiritual blessing to Melchizedek himself. Levi wasn’t even born until some 160 years later, but his great grandfather,whom he never met, was storing up a spiritual inheritance through his spiritual actions and honoring of God (Heb. 7:9-10).

Our future descendants are being continually formed inside of us by the spiritual seeds we sow. This happens in a couple of ways. First, our lives are changed as we take on the person of Jesus Christ - there’s an actual change in our nature as we become more and more Christ-like. In this sense we are creating a new atmosphere, imbued with the grace and love of God, which becomes the ‘norm’ for our children and, in turn, their children. No longer do we have ‘earthly’ minded homes and lives, but we live in an atmosphere where Christ reigns and rules. This is a major paving of the road into our descendents spirituality – it’s like giving them a jump in life that lifts them above one of the everyday problems we face in trying to serve well!

Second, while Christians have long feared the negative spiritual dynamics passed on in families, we often don’t see the positive spiritual seeds that have been sown, perhaps even generations ago. Abraham’s great grandson, Levi, was later to become the first priest in the house of God. Abraham’s tithe was a prophetic action which looked forward to and confirmed Levi’s future, spiritual assignment (Heb.7). As complicated as this may sound, it simply says that the spiritual acts done by our ancestors have great affect on us and the work God has given us to do - and ours have the same affect on our descendants. In this way we are able to spiritually and prophetically pave a road for our descendants to walk into the Kingdom life and work which God has called them to.

We also see this concept in Timothy, the NT leader whose “sincere faith” was alive first in his grandmother Lois and then his mother, Eunice. Grandma Lois was ‘paying it forward’ for Timothy – she was actively living and planting in the Kingdom of God, which rolled into her daughter Lois and then exploded spiritually in her grandson, Timothy (1 Ti 1:5).

If you think you have little effect on the future it’s time to rethink your spiritual life. Not only can you affect your physical descendants, but you can sow into your spiritual descendants in the same way. There is never a time when we can simply live for ourselves and live for today, as long as we are part of God’s Kingdom.

In essence, as we cooperate with God we pave the way for His future to be lived out in the next generation(s). In this way we are linked arm in arm with the cloud of witnesses from the past, and we reach forward to future Kingdom workers, prophetically participating in their lives of service.