Preparing the Next Generation
“I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” Matthew 16:18 (NKJV)
Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is recognize that a new generation is standing right in front of you. Not as a problem to be fixed, but as a promise to be released. Too often, the older voices become resistant voices. We criticize. We compare. We complain that things are different. But God has never waited for a generation to look like the previous one before He used them. He simply waits for someone willing to say, “It is time for you.”
There is a moment in Scripture where victory only came when generations worked together. Samson could not finish his assignment alone. He needed a younger guide to help him find his place. It was the strength of the older combined with the direction of the younger that brought the pillars down. And in one decisive moment, the leadership of the enemy collapsed. Scripture tells us that Samson accomplished more at the end than he ever did at the height of his strength. That is not a story about loss. It is a story about legacy.
What does that look like today? It looks like older believers refusing to silence younger voices. It looks like saying, “It is time for you to preach. It is time for you to sing. It is time for you to lead. It is time for revival to run through your hands.” The kingdom of God was never meant to be guarded like a museum. It was meant to be advanced like an army.
Samson gives us another powerful picture. He caught three hundred foxes. Before anything could be released, they had to be caught. A generation must be captured by vision. Young people do not want a defeated gospel or a powerless church. Jesus promised a victorious church. If we want to reach them, we must show them that God is alive, active, and still calling people to purpose.
Then Samson tied their tails together. They were not facing each other in criticism. They were back-to-back, watching one another’s blind spots. That is community. That is discipleship. We must tie the next generation to prayer, to Scripture, to the house of God, and to discipline. The Bible is not outdated. It is eternal. When you read it, it reads you. When you open it, God speaks.
Then Samson set them on fire and released them into the fields. That is the missing piece. Fire. Passion. The Holy Spirit at work in a willing life. A generation filled with the Spirit becomes the enemy’s greatest nightmare. Not loud without depth, but burning with truth and love.
God is not finished. He is still giving chances. He is still calling people up. And part of that calling is this simple truth. Do not resist the next generation. Catch them. Tie them. Fire them. And then release them into the world God loves.
Prayer: Lord, give me a heart that believes in the generations coming behind me. Help me speak life instead of criticism, faith instead of fear, and encouragement instead of control. Tie us together in truth and set us on fire by Your Spirit. Use us to reach this world for Your glory. Amen.
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