Judges 1:1
“Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass, that the children of Israel asked the LORD, saying, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them?”
Joshua made a tragic mistake that imperiled the future of Israel’s spirituality. The mistake he made was that he did not train someone to take his place when he was gone. This was spiritual suicide. Because he didn’t train someone to take his place, the people strayed from the LORD and did their own thing.
Joshua should have learned from Moses the importance of being a multi-generational Christian. Elijah understood the importance of multi-generational Christianity when he took Elisha and trained him to take his position when he went to Heaven. Whenever you forsake multi-generational Christianity, you are committing spiritual suicide. What is it going to take for you to avoid spiritual suicide and embrace multi-generational Christianity?
First, you are going to have to see the bigger picture. Don’t be short-sighted in your Christianity. You must realize that there are generations of people who follow you whom you could train to carry on the work that was given to you. Every great Christian throughout history has seen the bigger picture and trained the next generation how to serve the LORD. This is the core of the Great Commission. If we fail to train the next generation, we are in essence committing spiritual suicide.
Second, you are going to have to train more than one person. Jesus trained twelve men to carry on Christianity in His short three year ministry on Earth. If you want the work where you serve to continue after you are gone, you are going to have to train several people to take your position.
Third, you are going to have to be willing to be inconvenienced. Training others to take your place will take away from your personal time. It won’t always be convenient to train someone else, but you must be willing to invest in others if you want the work that God has used you to build to carry on. Training others will get tiring, but you must do this for the sake of Christ. If you never grasp the bigger picture, you will never be willing to be inconvenienced.
Fourth, you must realize that it is not about your legacy, but it is about Christ. If you get into the legacy building mentality, you will end up committing spiritual suicide. Legacy builders make it all about themselves and how it benefits them while they are alive. Multi-generational Christians realize that it is about the cause of Christ; therefore, they are more concerned with the next generation carrying on what God’s Word teaches.
If God took you to Heaven right now, is there anyone you have trained who could take your place? If you answered “No,” then let this devotional be the motivation to get out of the spiritual suicide mode and start training others. God wants us to be multi-generational Christians, which means we must constantly be training others to take our place. This is the only hope for a nation. This is the only hope for your ministry to continue.