are you building an ark for your children?

Amidst reading what my friend Christy so lovingly calls the "Faith Hall of Fame" (Hebrews 11), I found myself pondering my future children.

Though I have no children on the horizon, I still dream and hope for the family I will one day have.

I wonder who my children will be, and what anointing will be placed on their life by a very living God.

A God who sees them already, even though they exist not in this present time.

A God who is perhaps already talking to them in a space I cannot comprehend (Psalms 56:6).

I envision Him anointing them with oil and instilling faithfulness within them...

I obviously have not seen my future children. And perhaps to you this sounds absolutely kooky. But this is real stuff. The Lord is outside of space and outside of time--He created you, and He will create them!

I am calling you, as a Christian, as someone in relationship with the Lord, to action for your future family.

It is time to act in prayer for what you do not yet see.

Build your ark!

In Hebrews 11:7 it says,

"By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear, built an ark to save his family..."

Noah had not yet seen the flood, he did not see the danger, and did not know when he would. But he listened, he built the ark, and he saved his family.

Maybe you already have children, but what about your grandchildren?

Maybe you're like me and you do not have a spouse or significant other, let alone kids, but what about when you do?

We are called to a bold and persistent faith, a faith of constant prayer and petitioning (Philippians 4:6, 1 Thessalonians 5:17), a faith that calls to action.

Have faith for your children, grandchildren, husband, wife, generations beyond your counting, have faith for the invisible, the unthinkable, have faith for the beautiful, and the impossible.

Build an ark.

Build an ark without the flood.

Build an ark when people laugh and say you're being ridiculous, extravagant, or thinking on it too much.

Your ark for what does not exist starts in your prayer life.

Let the Lord provide revelation in prayer, let the Lord hear your voice, hear His voice back, be not afraid to stand before the mercy seat for your future children.

Hebrews 4:16 says,

"Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need."

Ephesians 3:12 also mentions confidence,

"In Him and through faith in Him we may approach God with freedom and confidence."

And again in 1 John 5:14 we see,

"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us."

There are many more verses on the confidence we have to approach the Lord because of what Christ Jesus did on the cross for us. Do not convince yourself that you are asking too much by coming to the Lord and contending for the lives of those who are not yet conceived.

I think we forget to pray for our future generations. Our children and grandchildren.

The world they will live in, the anointing they will have, the faith journey they will travel, the people they will know.

We forget that God can work outside of the present.

Let us stop forgetting, let us start building.

Another way we can build our ark is more tangible, but vastly more difficult.

Break the curses on your life.

We all have had things done to us. We have inherited things. We have done things to others. Whether its nature, nurture, or some other force, we all have baggage.

Jesus came to set us free from that baggage.

Those strongholds, those "it runs in my family" things, those "it's only on the weekend" things, those "I just can't help myself" things...

Let's examine those things.

Because if you don't, your children will.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to deal with your sin struggles, your trauma, your whatever, and find healing.

Be transformed by the renewing of your mind (Romans 12:2).

If you can't seek healing for yourself, then do what I do. Think about those kids you don't have yet and think about them dealing with what you are now. And then heal for them instead.

Think of your future spouse, think of being unable to be healthy for them and love them right, or unable to let them love you right. Heal for them.

Think of God, think of His Son, what He did on that cross. Heal for Him because He died for you and He did it to set you free.

Utilize your birthright as a child of God. Seek healing.

If you can't do it for yourself, find a reason to do it outside of yourself.

You will not regret healing.

Healing is painful. You will grieve, mourn, fail, and shed tears. It is honestly more difficult than you probably are thinking it is.

But dear one, press on. Continue to heal anyways, continue to heal despite...

Build an ark for your children through prayer and healing.

Be better than your parents,

than your parent's parents.

Be the first to heal.

Be the first to pray.

Be the first to build an ark.

"How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!" Hebrews 9:14

"For by one sacrifice He had made perfect forever those who are being made holy". Hebrews 10:14

Being made holy. Sanctification. We are saved, but we are yet being sanctified. Within sanctification is healing. Let's get the ball rolling.

It's in our destiny as children of God to heal.

Don't wait.

Do it for your future spouse, your future kids, your future grandkids.

Whatever is ahead of you, start now, do it for them, and eventually you will look back and realize how it was for yourself too.

Build an ark.

I just want us to look soberly at the power and the weight of our actions and the impact they will have on our future generations. What you do now in prayer, to heal, has deep meaning and deep impact.

Do not dismiss its importance.

"And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people". Ephesians 6:18

We are asked to pray for essentially everything and anything.

Include the most important of things in there: children. Conceived or not.

And again, do not dismiss your healing journey and how it can help and protect your future children.

Build an ark before the flood.