From the desk of Steve Shultz:
We've interviewed Rebecca Greenwood in our studios and she's also prayed for our staff. She just released her brand new book, Let Our Children Go - and I highly recommend that you get a copy or two for friends and family. God is raising up the children in our day like none other and it will be powerful. Remember that: Children are a heritage from the LORD, offspring a reward from Him. Psalm 127:3
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Rebecca Greenwood:
Children Are God's Best Gift
The following is a excerpt from Rebecca Greenwood's new book, Let Our Children Go:
Lee is an anointed man of God being raised in his nation to be a spiritual father to the next generation. He is one of the most passionate prayer warriors I have met. As Lee shared his testimony, it was difficult to hold back the tears.
Lee literally is a walking miracle. He was raised in a home by an abusive father – a lot of physical, mental, and emotional abuse. Due to the impossible living situation, Lee became extremely depressed and began cutting himself. His depression soon turned to despair. The cutting soon led to suicidal thoughts. He was desperate to escape the abuse and wanted to end his young, tormented, fatherless life. He attempted suicide seven times. Several times by hanging himself. Each time the noose broke. And several times in overdose attempts. However, the drugs did not end his life. No medical explanation as to why the drugs did not kill him, but miraculously they did not.
At the age of eighteen, he was radically saved. The Lord did a deep healing work in Lee's heart. Transformed by the love of our heavenly Father, Lee chose to forgive his earthly father and to pray for his salvation. Where there was hurt and betrayal, Lee honestly felt complete forgiveness and an unhindered love for his abusive father. In time, Lee's father repented and became a Christian. He now attends the church that young Lee is pastoring. Lee's father is a taxi driver. The Lord has done such a deep work in him that many times he is so overcome by the presence of God, he weeps as he drives. Where he was once a hard man, he is now free and experiencing the Father's heart. Listen to the beautiful words this once abusive father shares with his son. "Lee, I might be your physical father, but you are now my spiritual father." Friends, our God can heal every hurt, betrayal, and all resulting wounds.
Getting the People Ready for God
He'll be filled with the Holy Spirit from the moment he leaves his mother's womb. He will turn many sons and daughters of Israel back to their God. He will herald God's arrival in the style and strength of Elijah, soften the hearts of parents to children, and kindle devout understanding among hardened skeptics – he'll get the people ready for God. Luke 1:17, The Message
When John the Baptist was born, his father prophesied that he was destined to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children (Luke 1:17). He was the forerunner, preparing the way for God to move. All of us long for revival. We desire it at a personal, family, and corporate level.
This rising generation is living in the most strategic time in history of the Church. We are living in a day and time where the love of the mothers and fathers to their children and spiritual mothers and fathers to their spiritual children is crucial. One of the main focuses in the coming move of God will be the literal turning and returning of the fathers and mothers to the children and the children to the mothers and fathers. The above story shares how an entire family can be turned to one another and God. However, I know the reality is many of you have prodigals who have wandered from home, love and a personal relationship with God. Let's look at the following depiction of the faithfulness of our heavenly Father toward those who have wandered from their God-ordained path.
Prodigals Return!
We are all familiar with the story in Luke 15:11-24 called the Parable of the Prodigal Son. The word prodigal means "wasteful." But I believe a more appropriate title is the Parable of the Loving Father, because it emphasizes the graciousness of the father more than the sinfulness of the son. It was the memory of his father's goodness and love that brought the boy to repentance and forgiveness. I want to clearly share: It is time for the Father's heart to touch a fatherless generation. A time of restoration of the hearts of the mothers and fathers to their children and the children to the mothers and fathers. Let's look at the three experiences of the son.
Rebellion
According to Jewish law, an elder son obtained twice as much as the additional sons. A father could distribute his wealth during his lifetime whenever he wished. It was absolutely lawful for the younger son to ask for his share of the estate and even to sell it, but it was certainly not a very tenderhearted act. It was as if he were pronouncing to his father, "I wish you were dead!" Frequently, our most painful difficulties begin when we are able to do precisely as we please.
We are always heading for trouble if we cherish things more precious than people, pleasure to a higher degree than responsibility, and distant scenes more than the blessings we receive right at home. Jesus at one time warned two disputing brothers, "Listen and beware of covetousness!" (Luke 12:15). The envious person can never be fulfilled, regardless of how much he acquires. A discontented heart leads to a frustrated life. The prodigal discovered the hard way that you cannot enjoy the things money can buy whenever you dismiss the things money cannot buy.
The distant country he left for is not necessarily a far place to journey to, because it lives in our hearts. The younger son dreamed of basking in his freedom far from home. Absent of his father and older brother. He required to get his own way so he rebelled against his own father and broke his heart.
But life in the distant country was not what he anticipated. His resources ran out, his friends left him, a famine came, and the son was forced to serve a stranger when he previously would not serve his own father. He had to go to work! Sin promises freedom, but it brings bondage. It predicts success but brings failure. It assures life, but as God's Word so distinctly shares "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). The boy embraced the lies of rebellion and believed he would discover himself, but he lost himself! When God is left out of our lives, enjoyment becomes enslavement.
Repentance
To repent means to change one's mind. That is exactly what the young man did as he looked after the pigs. Eventually he came to himself, which shows that up to this point he had not truly been himself. Warren Wiersbe shares this powerful revelation, "There is an insanity in sin that appears to paralyze the image of God within us and liberates the animal inside."
The young man changed his mind about himself, his position, and recognized that he was a sinner. He confessed that his father was giving and that service at home was far better than freedom in the distant country. It is God's goodness and love not just man's badness that draws us to repentance. If the boy had thought only on his hunger and homesickness, then he would have despaired. But his dire circumstances helped him to see his father in a new way, which imparted hope: If his father was so honorable to his servants, perhaps he would forgive a son.
Had he stopped there, the boy would have only experienced grief, but genuine repentance touches the will as well as the mind and the emotions. He stated, "I will rise up...I will go...I will say..." Resolutions may be noble, but unless we act on them they can never of themselves bring about any lasting good. If repentance is authentically the work of God, then the sinner will obey God and place saving faith in Jesus.
Restoration and Rejoicing
The father not only rushed to receive his son, but he valued the boy's homecoming by preparing a great banquet. The father never permitted the younger son to complete his confession. He interrupted him, forgave him, and ordered the celebrating to begin!
The father represents the attitude of our heavenly Father toward repentant sons and daughters: He is unending in His mercy and grace and magnificent in His love. Because of the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross, we are saved by God's grace, a love that pays a price.
In the East, aged men do not run; yet the father raced to welcome his son. One evident reason was his endless love for him. But something else is involved. This rebellious son had brought dishonor to his family and village. According to Deuteronomy 21:18-21, he should have been stoned to death. If the villagers had started casting stones, they would have struck the father who was embracing him. What a beautiful portrayal of what Jesus did for us on the Cross!
Everything the younger son had hoped to encounter in the faraway place, he found back home: clothes, jewelry, friends, joyful festivity, love, and assurance for the future. What had changed? Instead of saying, "Father, give me!" he said, "Father, mold me!" He was ready to serve. The father did not require him to earn his pardon, because good works cannot redeem us from our sins. In the distant country, the prodigal learned the reality of misery in sin. But back home, he learned the essence of mercy.
The ring was a sign and seal of sonship, and the "finest robe" was validation of his family's love and acceptance. You see, servants did not wear rings, shoes, or pricey garments. The feast was the father's way of expressing his joy and sharing it with others. Had the son been treated according to the legal standards of the law, there would have been a funeral not a celebration.
What a glorious account of a loving father. I know there are many reading this who are living in the reality of a child who has strayed in rebellion, lost his way and is trapped within that distant land. But friends, be encouraged and strengthened this day. The promising word of the Lord is we are in a day where God is moving and restoring the relationship between the fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, and parent and child. It is a time of rejoicing in His goodness.
Children Are God's Best Gift
Don't you see that children are God's best gift? The fruit of the womb His generous legacy? Like a warrior's fistful of arrows are the children of a vigorous youth. Oh, how blessed are you parents, with your quivers full of children! Your enemies don't stand a chance against you; you'll sweep them right off your doorstep. Psalm 127:3-5, The Message
Jesus, we want to pray in agreement with this powerful Scripture and promise from Your Word. Children truly are Your best gift. We thank You for this journey You have placed us on. Give us Your complete, unending love for our children and this next generation. Strengthen and anoint us to be the fathers, mothers and leaders You have called us to be. We ask for Your supernatural guidance in this process and journey.
Let us minister salvation, deliverance, love and freedom to our young. Let us reflect Your love so freely and without compromise. Cause us to be a strong and shining reflection of Your Father's heart. May there be healing and restoration between us and our young. Where there are breaches of trust, hurt and emotional pain, bring healing, deliverance and restoration. We pray in agreement for the return of the prodigals. We speak forth in agreement, "Lord, bring them home! Touch their hearts!" We thank You for every good work You are doing that we do not even see or know about with or physical eyes. Those things You are doing in their hearts to draw them to You. We thank You for that work.
And for all of our children and in all areas of our lives make us to be the loving fathers and mothers You have designed for us to be to our physical and spiritual children. Make us tenacious, passionate and ones who do not shrink back, but advance forward in Your Kingdom. Let the work You have begun in our lives come to complete fruition. May Your abundant love, blessings and heart touch us, our young, our homes, our youth groups and churches in deeper measure. And may Your freedom reign in all of our lives. We love You, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Rebecca Greenwood
Christian Harvest International
Email: info@christianharvestintl.org
Rebecca Greenwood, Let Our Children Go, 181-185, 193. Used by permission of publisher.
Rebecca Greenwood is cofounder and president of Christian Harvest International. She is an internationally known speaker. She conducts seminars and conferences in which she teaches on numerous topics, including prayer, intercession, spiritual warfare, spiritual mapping, deliverance, prophecy and the Kingdom of God. Over the past twenty years, she has participated and led in spiritual warfare prayer journeys in over 21 countries such as Egypt, Nepal, Italy, Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, Ireland and Spain, and to many cities and locations throughout the United States. She serves as a minister to the Body of Christ in prayer, deliverance and inner healing and has seen thousands of individuals saved, set free and healed. Rebecca and her husband, Greg, reside in Colorado Springs, Colorado. They have three beautiful daughters: Kendall, Rebecca and Katie.
