WHEN YOU ARE SENT BUT YOU REFUSE TO DELIVER AS SENT!
There was a day I was catching a nap in my grandfather’s house when an elderly couple walked in. I woke up momentarily to attend to them. They said, “When Grandpa and Grandma comes, tell them that mummy has been discharged from the hospital”. I nodded and told them I would deliver the message.
Well! I forgot to deliver the message to my grandparents. About four hours later, my grandparents came in and asked, “Anuoluwapo, did anyone send you to us?” That was my alarm clock. I quickly delivered the message. But it was too late.
They had driven some kilometres to the hospital to check on their neighbour and friend. They were informed they had been discharged. They visited them at home where they told them they met a young man whom they asked to deliver a message. I had wasted their energy and time that evening. “My professor grandfather” used quite a big word to describe my forgetfulness.
If God has given you a message to deliver to your generation, remember that a lot is at stake. You cannot and must never treat any divine assignment with levity. When you do, you can lead an entire generation into waste. It would be really selfish of you to forget that there are a lot of things tied to you fulfilling your mandate in your generation.
There is a simple scripture hidden in the genealogy of Jesus Christ that unsettles me every time I get to read it or I remember it:
So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, from David until the captivity in Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ are fourteen generations.
Matthew 1:17 NKJV
There were three names that were mentioned here:
First is Abraham. Father Abraham may not have been perfect but he definitely ran his destiny race according to God’s programme for him. He is referenced as the friend of God and father of faith. He ran his race. Prophet Isaiah said we can look to Abraham as a reference of living purposefully and in faith.
The Second is David. David was not also perfect but he had a testimony that he was a man who pleased the Lord and he served the purpose of God in his generation. He took his place and played his role.
Third is Christ. Without a shadow of a doubt, Christ is a perfect example. He ran his race so well that he said this to the Father:
Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
(John 17:1, 4-5 NKJV)
But there was a place where no name was written:
So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, from David until the captivity in Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ are fourteen generations.
Matthew 1:17 NKJV
The question I get to ask myself is: Whose name was replaced with captivity? Who should have stood for a generation that did not take his or her place? Who was meant to deliver a message but slept off?
Friends, when the Lord raises you to bless a generation, stand up to it! Pay the price for it. Get the training for it. Pursue the assignment with a sense of urgency. Build the capacity necessary to fulfil it. Let nothing else fill the gap you are to fill.
When a father and mother do not take their place, the next generation can be described as “captivity”.
What message are you meant to deliver? Are you sleeping or are you awake and ready?