GODLY HERITAGE

By Jemima Rayan

After the children of Israel stepped into the Promised Land, Joshua called the people for a meeting and said, 'Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve … but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord' (Joshua 24:15). Joshua was talking about his household. Each one of us must make a choice, and the choice that we make will set a stage for our family and us. When you place Jesus Christ in authority over your home, there is no greater blessing you could give to you family. When you build your home on Biblical principles, there is nothing like it. When you nurture your home with the Spirit-filled life style it will be the greatest strength you could ever have.

Priest of your household:

Deuteronomy 11:18-21 says, 'Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between you eyes, You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. That your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land in which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth'.

Fathers need to walk in the authority as priests in your own homes. Priests bring the people to God. When a Christian father has assumed his role, his children will obey and respect him. The children need not obey the parents for fear of punishment but because he is a man of God, bringing Godly instruction to them.

Father and children need to work together. Eph 6: 2-4 talks about fathers and children. It is the father's responsibility to bring the kids in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. No one can have a better authority over your children than you. This authority comes from God because He is the one that has appointed you.

A Godly example:

Children do not simply obey what you say, but they just imitate what you do. If you are happy, they are happy. If you read the Bible, they read the Bible. If you pray, they pray. You don't have to have a doctorate in theology to be the priest of your home. May be you do not have a Godly father. You can become one. You can start a godly generation. Fathers need to take that authority in Jesus name. May you bring God's voice to the kids in your own homes. You must make a decision. It is easy to blame the school systems, quality of the TV programs and the influence of friends at school.

The Bible says, 'Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it (Pro 22:6). Do not count on the Sunday school teacher to train up your child. The Sunday class teacher may have an influence over your children but God will hold you responsible because it is your child.

Build your house:

Ps 127:1 says, 'Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it'. The Lord wants to build your home. The devil wants to destroy your home. The enemy wants to bring strife, anger and division in the family. Satan touches families before he touches the church. You know why? Because God instituted family before He established the church. That is why the devil hates the family so much. There is power in a family united in God.

Five steps you could follow to build your house:

1. Establish your home on a rock:
Matt 7:26, 27, 'But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand'. Begin to do what you have heard from God's word. The storms of life may come upon you but you cannot be shaken. Only when the rain, storms and winds blow you can really know how strong the house is. When your house is on the solid rock of the word of God, no devil in hell can shake your house. Build your house on the revelation of who God is!

2. Sanctify your home:
Cleansing your home is very important. 1 Timothy 4:5 says, 'for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer'. Determine not to allow anything that is not holy or unclean to come into your home. Declare that your home is a holy habitation of God's presence where quarrel and argument are not allowed. Make your home a sanctuary unto God.

3. Family prayer:
Read God's word and meditate the word as a family. Let your family know that you are all in God's family. Call your family together for a time of prayer each day. Let them see you walking with the Lord. Have a time when the family will fast and pray. This binds the family together. A family that prays together stays together. Matt 18:19 says, '…if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven'.

4. Anointing with oil:
Oil is the symbol of the Holy Ghost. Every home should keep a special bottle of oil. Overshadowing of God in the lives of the children happens when we anoint with oil. Isaiah 10:27 says, '…And the yoke will be destroyed because of the anointing oil'

5. Plead the blood over the family:
Do not let your family set foot outside your home without being covered with the blood of the Lamb. The devil's devices cannot penetrate the blood. Rev12: 11 says, 'they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb … '

May the Lord help you have a Godly heritage. Amen.