Focus: Our Generational God!

Text: Ex.15:2

"The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become MY salvation: he is MY GOD, and I will prepare him an habitation; MY FATHER'S GOD, and I will exalt him."

In spiritual things possessiveness is allowed. The spirituality of possessiveness permeates and pervades Scripture. "Christianity," according to Martin Luther, "is a word of personal pronoun." Our God is a personal God. You can possess Him for yourself. God desires and delights in those who possess or own Him personally.

In the song of Moses, he presents God to Israel as "my God… my father's God." A part of the song in the mouth of every Israelite is, "MY God… MY father's God." They are now encountering and serving the God of the past - the God their father passed on to them. In Israel, yesterday's God has become today's God. He has become real to them. God is no relic of the past.

Part of Moses' message to Israel was, "The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you…" He said, "The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations" (Ex.3:13,15). Mark those expressions: the God of Abraham - the God of Isaac - the God of Jacob. 

Abraham encountered God for himself as well as Isaac and Jacob did. God was real to the three of them in a personal way. They all had stories to tell about the same God. None of them depended entirely on the other person's story about God. Each of them experienced God in a personal way. Isaac could say, 'My father's God is my own God.' Jacob could say, 'My father's God has become also my God.' Individually, each owned God to himself.

God says to Moses, "Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, APPEARED UNTO ME, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt… That THEY may believe that the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath APPEARED UNTO THEE" (Ex.3:16; 4:5). The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob appeared to Moses. Moses saw Abraham's God. The 'burning bush' is the evidence. Right there, he saw the invisible. 

Isaiah saw the Lord sitting on the throne. 

Elijah met with him. As he stood by the Jordan River, carrying the mantle of Elijah in his hand, Elisha cried out, "Where is the LORD God of Elijah?" We read, "And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the LORD God of Elijah? and when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither: and Elisha went over." Wow. That was awesome! 

From generation to generation men have encountered this God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Paul says, "Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness" (Act.14:17). 

In every generation God has a witness - witnesses both in His people and in His providential care of the earth. You can be God's own witness in your generation.

God is constantly and consistently a present reality to all who totally embrace and possess Him.

God is a generational God.

He does not begin and end with one generation. In every generation God has a witness. A witness is one that has a first hand evidence. He can die for what he knows because he is sure of it.

It is important for every generation to encounter God first hand. You should be able to say, 'He is my God. I know Him for myself. I know my redeemer lives. I believe God.' He is the God of personal pronouns. Ruth confessed that Noami's God shall be her God. Own God to yourself! Possess Him in reality! Knowing God should go beyond public profession to personal and private possession! Each generation needs a fresh encounter of God.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter