From Sorrow to Rejoicing

Psalm 126: When the Lord brought back the captivity of Zion, We were like those who dream.  Then our mouth was filled with laughter.  And our tongue with singing.  Then they said among the nations, The Lord has done great things for them.  The Lord has done great things for us.  And we are glad.  Bring back our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the South.  Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy.  He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

God’s children had deliberately turned their back on Him in the corporate sense.  Remember Daniel and his three friends…they were in captivity, but they were not unfaithful.  This has a huge lesson for us.  We can end up in captivity, and it has nothing to do with us…we are a part of a people who have forsaken God.  We will be those who sow in tears and reap in joy bringing our sheaves with us.  I see sheaves as being our children that may have been born in captivity.  Within each captive is the seed of a future that is not in captivity.  This is beautiful!  It often takes captivity for God to clear the way for a different kind of future for ourselves and our children.  Captivity, then, can be viewed as God stepping in…not to punish, but to put an end to something that is destroying His people and their future children.

Have you ever been in bondage to a really difficult situation?  It is hard to hope past the present.  Those tears of helplessness and hopelessness are appropriate.  It is hard to see past the bondage to the deliverance of ourselves and our children and grandchildren.  Our bondage to non-disturbance causes us to kick and scream in our places of captivity.  When God’s children had a new king and he was a good king, the first thing he did was to restore the temple service, re-dedicated the temple and the people.  This included corporate confession of the sins of the father.  This is huge.  Have you done this for your family so they are not burdened with the sins of the fathers/mothers? 

Often in the work that I do with people, we have to do a work that releases them from these past sins.  This is the stuff of  “why do I keep doing this?”  Not overcoming may be about this dynamic.  We are not taught the necessity of confession of the sins of the fathers/mothers.  The awful consequences just keep accumulating for generations.  Each generation has less and less potential for overcoming and living in a place of freedom…God’s freedom. 

Psalm 126 says much to me about the principles of this dynamic.  “When the Lord brought back the captivity of Zion, we were like those who dream.”  Our dreams of freedom, of peace, of health, of victory, etc. can be more than a dream.  It comes through the Lord turning back our captivity.  The blessing of the captivity is that it is preparing a people who want to live in freedom.  All the others will die in the wilderness because they really prefer Egypt. Again, this says so much to us.  Unless we get over those places of non-disturbance (that which is holding us captive and stifling our spiritual growth), we will confuse captivity with freedom.  To equate freedom with never being disturbed and encouraged into spiritual and emotional growth/maturity is the core of bondage.  We dress it up and desire the flesh pots of Egypt…preferring bondage to freedom.

God’s model is to confess the sins of the fathers/mothers.  If not done in the easy times, it will be encouraged in times of captivity.  It is essential for ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren…unto the third and fourth generation.  This is a spiritual law that has physical implications.  Science is showing that our off spring are genetically predisposed to our emotional and physical limitations.  Confessing the sins of the fathers/mothers is more than a spiritual ritual.  It is the gateway for actual genetic change and not living under the dominion of death (sin). 

The promise is that we will come again with rejoicing, bringing our sheaves (children/grandchildren) with us  I encourage you to help yourself, your children (even those unborn), and the grandchildren (even those unborn), to a future that is free from the captivity of this world and what we have inherited.  If you need guidance, please feel free to ask.  God bless.