In this year of Working the Land, a reoccurring theme, for me, has been foundations and futures. The more I focus on creating a great future, the more I realize that I need a sound foundation. I can talk about making an amazing apple pie, with fresh cut apples, pure brown sugar, and the finest flour, but it’s all pointless if you don’t buy the ingredients. It’s even more pointless if you’ve never been taught how to cook.
This leaves me in a peculiar place. I reflect on what skills and knowledge I’ve been given, and weigh out if it aligns me with the future I want. If things are missing, I have to go figure them out.
By wisdom a house is built,
Proverbs 24:3-4 (NIV)
and through understanding it is established;
through knowledge its rooms are filled
with rare and beautiful treasures
Shortly after Digging Deep, I realized that these concepts don’t just apply to the physical matters of the world. Debt education, home ownership, lifestyle behaviors, and health are only the beginning. The house referenced isn’t just a physical place. This house is the family, community, and generations of people tied to your legacy that are all affected by the things you do.
People buy houses based off of property values from not just the individual house, but the entire neighborhood. School’s rankings are determined by an average of student’s performance, not just a specific child. Insurance rates, gas prices, fashion projections, and more are all based off of multiple groups of people and history, not just an individual.
I realized I’ve been dealing with some of the same spiritual issues that have kept my mom’s and dad’s families in bondage for generations. Lust, performance, envy, greed, addiction, anxiety, depression, and more have shaped their lives with fear and shame so deeply, so profoundly, that these curses had a favorite chair in my living room.
I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations
Exodus 34:7 (NLT)
I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin.
But I do not excuse the guilty.
I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren;
the entire family is affected—
even children in the third and fourth generations.
The tough part of Exodus 34:7 is that it admits we will be haunted by the sins of those before us. Romans 5 talks intensively about how because of Adam, sin entered the world and affects us today. However, God’s “unfailing love to a thousand generations” also gives great hope.
That unfailing love is Jesus Christ.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 3:16 (KJV)
The law was just a prelude because our sacrifices weren’t enough to break the curse of sin. Thankfully, Jesus Christ’s death was more than enough. Christ came so that we may have life and that more abundantly. He created a pathway for us to have freedom. Him being “the way” is not by chance.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
John 14:6 (NKJV)
Jesus conquering sin and living in us through the Holy Spirit reestablishes our connection to the Father and gives us the ability to break all curses that wage war against us. This is not limited to the sin in my life. I have the ability to take authority over all and any connected to me. I have the power to liberate all of those that cross my because of my faith in Christ Jesus. Even my shadow heals the sick.
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.
John 4:12
That poses an unique question for us. What type of legacy do you want to leave? We must admit that the spiritual weights and battles we have participated in affect the physical obstacles we face. My misunderstandings of love directly influenced my self-esteem, which came out in the relationships I sought, jobs I took, and how I spent my free time. All those things affected my finances, housing, and health simply because I didn’t know that my Father God loves me unconditionally.
This has helped me understand some of the enemy’s tricks. If you won’t give your attention, he will steal it. If he can’t kill your dream, he will delay it. If he can’t destroy your soul, he would rather you be frozen in place so that you can’t do anything else. The importance of Jesus Christ being in our lives is Him giving us freedom from being chained to the lies of the enemy, and living in the truth of what we were created to do. Jesus came to give us life.
The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
John 10:10 (NKJV)
How important is legacy to you? What do you choose to leave behind as an inheritance? How will the decisions you make today shape the futures of tomorrow?
I’m going to be writing a series of posts connected to the Future and the Foundations we choose to set. Feel free to post in the comments below.
Turn Your Brightness Up!
#BeMagnificent🔆