Generations, Together Making History

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Welcome to A Word in Season with Doug Stringer and friends.

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We share good news and godly wisdom to empower you to be salt and light in every season of

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life.

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In past studies, the United States was shown to be the most fatherless country in the world.

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But God wants to pour out His Father's heart on this orphan generation.

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A move of God is coming that will send forth His presence all over the world.

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And as Doug shares his heart with great expectation in the Lord.

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After the episode, consider leaving a review and follow us on your favorite streaming service.

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If you've gleaned anything from this podcast, consider paying it forward with a gift at

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somebodycares.org.

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Now let's join our host, Doug Stringer.

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A 2019 study by the Pew Research Center of 130 countries and territories showed that

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the United States to be the most fatherless country in the world.

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About 20% of people under 18 living in single parent households, and we can infer that most

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of those would be single parent moms.

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That is three times the worldwide average of 7%.

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That being said, I believe that God wants to pour out His Father's heart upon this

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orphan generation.

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Because I believe it's a generation looking for identity in a time when others don't

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have an answer for them.

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But God does.

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All the things that they're looking for, or they're seeking for, are found in Him.

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And when He shows up in a greater measure, it won't just be tremors or aftershocks.

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It will be a movement of God that will send forth His presence all over the world.

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I believe there is a hunger in this generation.

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And there have been many tears of intercession over this generation.

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I believe there has been a price that's been paid by those seeking the Lord for a sense

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of hope, vision, and direction that was not from man, but from God.

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Over the years in many articles I've written, as well as many books like The Fatherless

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Generation or Hope for a Fatherless Generation, Who's Your Daddy Now?, and of course most

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recently In Search of a Father's Blessing, I talk about the camels are coming.

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They're coming out of the desert, and out of their identity crisis, and out of their

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orphan spirits.

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They're coming out of those places and into the Father's embrace, a place of consecration

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before God that says, I have nothing without you.

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I need you.

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I need your inheritance.

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I need your direction.

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And I need your wisdom.

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And I need your favor.

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And I need your blessing.

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Yes, I believe when this generation gets a revelation of the Father Heart of God, I believe

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they will find forgiveness, and healing, and liberation, and deliverance, and most of all,

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they'll find identity and no longer be termed a fatherless or orphan generation.

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Here's a beautiful promise from God.

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In 2 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 18, I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons

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and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.

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It doesn't matter where we've come from or what we've been through.

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It doesn't matter what our past might be because we can't change our past, but the decisions

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we make every day determine our future.

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It doesn't matter what bad choices we have made in the past either.

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God has a special place in His heart for this generation, and for the orphan, and for the

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lonely.

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He wants to take the lonely and set them into families, it says in Psalm 68, 6.

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In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for father is ab, and the Israelites understood

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this to describe God as Father of them as a nation.

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It wasn't personal.

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But in the New Testament, Jesus introduces us to a whole new understanding of father

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by the Greek word, patera, which was more personal.

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Our father which art in heaven, Matthew 6, 9.

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Then it becomes even more personal with abba, or daddy.

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It's a word of endearment in the Aramaic.

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For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit

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of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba, Father.

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That's Romans 8, verse 15.

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Even as we see in the Old Testament that it was hard for people to comprehend God as a

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personal father, a lot of people today feel the same thing.

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Some years ago an 18 year old girl wrote to me and said, why would he give himself the

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title father, what a stupid idea, when father means rejection in my world.

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Now thankfully, she is reconciled to her heavenly father as well as to earthly father.

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I believe God is still pouring out his heart.

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Not on just Generation X, Y, Z, or the Millennials.

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He has the heart of a father for all of his sons and daughters who are looking for his

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acceptance, wisdom, embrace for his healing, direction, and deliverance.

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All of us are needing affirmation, approval, and acceptance.

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When you are adopted into a home, you have the same privileges as those in the blood

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line of that home.

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You carry the family name now.

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And when we are adopted into God's family, we are sealed by our Father who has qualified

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us to receive the inheritance of the kingdom because we are no longer separated from him.

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Read that in Colossus chapter 1, verse 12.

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Now you may remember the incredible story of the prodigal son in Luke chapter 15.

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And when the father sees his son has come to his senses and is returning home, the father

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runs to meet him.

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He hugs him, kisses him, embraces him, saying, let's have a party, so to speak.

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My son has come home.

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He was lost and now he's found.

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Those of us in the older generation need to remember how the older son, who did all the

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right things all of those years, became jealous.

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This is much like the story of the early morning laborers in Matthew 20 who became jealous

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of the eleventh hour people who received the same amount of pay for doing much less work.

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When we have a spirit of jealousy or competition and we criticize any move of God that doesn't

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look like the way we think it should look, something is wrong in us and it needs to be

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exposed.

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We need to release those things because they come from an orphan spirit.

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I'm personally now a part of the older generation.

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But when I was younger, I saw moves of God in our nation and other nations of the world

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that are still being lived out today.

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And even in my own city, I still hear people talking about their lives that were changed

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or impacted by the things we were involved in.

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And although I rejoice, I really do about these great stories and testimonies and how

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in some small way we're a part of impacting people's lives, I don't want to camp there.

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I don't want to live in the past.

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I'm still longing as an older Samuel, so to speak, a part of the older generation, to

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see the next generation come into their destiny and to do greater things than we could ever

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have thought of.

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I'm still longing for and believing for the Father Heart of God to be poured out as a

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multi-generational anointing on a prophetic generation that will prepare the way for greater

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revival, outpourings of God's Spirit, and ultimately the coming of the Lord.

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Malachi 4.6 says, And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart

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of the children to the fathers.

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I know often we talk about the heart of the fathers to the children, but likewise I want

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to see the heart of the next generation, the heart of the children, to be turned to their

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fathers and their mothers as well.

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Let's not be like the early morning laborers, jealous of the eleventh hour workers.

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Let's rejoice in what God is doing and not be critical.

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Let's ask God to expose everything in our personal hearts so we can be a part of what

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He is doing throughout the earth.

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As part of the older generation now, I'm longing to see Spirit of God poured out upon

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the next generation, and yet the wisdom of the older generation connected to the passion

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and the zeal of the emerging generation together can have a profound impact that will leave

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a lasting legacy.

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And ultimately together, a multi-generational connectivity crossing our racial and denominational

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and generational lines to see the Father heart of God poured out upon the older generation

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and the younger generation alike.

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Together the world will see that Jesus Christ is Lord and that there is an inheritance that

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we don't have to take by force, but it's already given by inheritance because it says in Colossians

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1-12, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us.

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We don't have to take by force what God already wants to give.

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And like the prodigal children, we can come home and God is already reaching out to us

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and calling us back to Himself.

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And likewise, we don't have to be like the older brother or the early morning laborers

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who maybe didn't go astray, but yet we become jealous or bitter because we see the benefits

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or the blessings of God upon the emerging generation.

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I know that I can't cross over the Jordan by myself.

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I need for God to raise up the next generation that will help lead us into the place of possessing

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the land of God's promises.

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And for me, I want to see with my eyes all that my heart has cried out for, for decades

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crying out for a move of God upon my generation and the generations to come.

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We cannot change our past, but the decisions we make every day together can have a global

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impact that we don't just have to sing about being history makers, but together we can

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see history being made.

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We hope you enjoyed this episode of A Word in Season with Doug Stringer and Friends,

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and ask you to prayerfully consider supporting the ministry at SomebodyCares.org or by texting

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your donation amount to 805-422-7348.

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Please join us again for A Word in Season with Doug Stringer and Friends.