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On Earth…the year is 2733… You get a knock at your door. Two men are standing there waiting for you to come with them. You have been summoned. Without hesitation, you go with them as you were expecting them.
“Good afternoon, do we know why I am being summoned?” You ask the men who are walking with you. Both men are smiling and in a very festive mood.
“We are not sure. We were just told to come and get you and that is all we were told to do.” The man says looking over to the other man that was with him. The looks on their faces and their demeanor seemed to indicate that they were being truthful. They did not know why that had come to get you.
You walk with them down the streets of gold and can see in the distance the majestic building you are headed toward. The walk will take some time. The building is a couple of miles in the distance.
As you walk the street, more and more people start to join the walk. Within a few minutes, it seems like your walk has started to develop into a march. The men are leading you and everyone else seems to be following in lock-step behind. You look behind you, and everyone around you is smiling. Small talk among the crowd has started to develop.
You look back at a few people behind you and catch the eye of another man. “Do you know what this is all about?” You ask him.
“I don’t know for sure, but if it’s what I think it might be, it can’t get much better than this!” The man replies.
“Well, what do you think it is?” You ask, curious to know some ideas.
“Oh, I can’t say because I really don’t know.” The man’s smile does not fade from his face with his response.
You look to the other side of you and make eye contact with a lady walking at a nice pace behind you with a pep in her step.
“Do you happen to know what this is all about?” You ask her.
“I don’t know, but I can’t wait to find out!” The woman says as she looks at the lady walking next to her and they both smile at each other.
The crowd behind you continues to grow as if you and the two men with you are in a Rocky movie running through the streets of Philadelphia with the crowd developing and running with you. As you finally approach the massive building you now have nothing short of a huge army accompanying you.
When you get to the building, the two men lead you to a door and the crowd seems to head to go the opposite way to other doors open to them. You follow the men into the building which now reveals itself as a big stadium arena. You are greeted by other men who intercept you and guide you down the back halls to a waiting room that would look like a locker room for a pro athlete.
“Stay here…we are a few minutes from the celebration.” One of the entourages that led you to the room tells you and the two men who came in with you.
The arena fills quickly with what looks to be thousands and thousands of people. The center of the arena has a majestic stage with three thrones. The crowd immediately knows the thrones are for God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The floor around the stage is empty. Even though the arena is full of thousands and thousands of people, multiple stories high, the arena floor looked awkwardly bare, with just a carpet isle-way leading from the stage to one side of the arena opening.
Music starts the ceremony. God enters the arena to a crowd that roars in worship and praise, the sound that is so great and sweet it goes beyond the imagination of its beauty. The arena is in awe of the God who is. God makes his way to his rightful place at the center of the arena and sits on his throne.
In the back room you’re waiting in, a man, now more appropriately known as an angel, knocks on the door and opens it. “Are you ready? It’s time. Come with me.” With anticipation, you follow the angel down to the runway leading into the arena. Walking into the arena, you look around as the crowd continues to praise and worship the King of kings and Lord of lords. You can’t help but look around at the scores and scores of those in the crowd in continuous praise. The feeling of righteousness, perfection, justice, forgiveness, wisdom, and love is almost overwhelming. The angel leads you to the base of the stage where other angels are bowing and quickly both you and the angel who was walking with you fall to your knees, bowing and worshiping the Creator of all things.
After prolonged worship, the crowd dies down, not because they want to stop their worship, but because God has waved his hand to speak. God calls out to you and the masses of people in the arena watching. The words He might speak I could never do it justice, but it might have sounded something like this:
“My people, when you pray to Me, I hear. I am the Alpha and the Omega, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
He then looks down at you who is still kneeling in awe of his majesty.
“My son,” He says, “On earth, in the year 2023 you prayed to Me for your lineage. You asked that I prepare their hearts for Me before any of them were born. You stood in the gap for them and yet you never even knew them. You petitioned me for their lives when you would never know who they were or ever be able to have a relationship with them.”
With your head bowed as you listened, your heart began to thump with joy as you know your God is a God who is faithful.
God continued, “Son, I heard your cries! Lift your eyes my child and see the greatness of my power and the abundance of my grace. Behold the power of your God! I have rewarded your faith. Look now my child to see how your prayers were answered!”
You looked to the aisle way where you had entered the stadium. One by one, people you had never seen before started to enter the arena walking toward the stage. Each one walked right up to you and introduced themselves:
“I am your great, grandson born 5 years after you passed “…” I am your great, great, granddaughter born 30 years after you passed”…” I am your 5th generation grandson born 150 years after you passed”…” I am your many generations granddaughter born 300 years after your passing”….” Hi, I am many multiple generations after you…your grandson… born 600 years after you passed.”
The people just kept on coming in, introducing themselves to you, generation after generation, years and years apart. They did not stop until they filled the arena floor in such great numbers that they could barely move. The awkwardly bare floor was nowhere to be seen any longer. God had heard your cry and answered your prayer to save them all from their sins with the blood of Jesus Christ.
You stood in awe as you met each one of them simply amazed at what your God had done when you prayed for your lineage so many years before! Once the arena was filled with more people than you could count, the praise and worship of God Almighty began once again…and it was not about to stop anytime soon!
This story as I have told it is fictitious. However, I believe it can come true. Have you ever taken a moment to think about praying for your generations to come, your lineage? I believe in praying for my lineage! I believe in the power of prayer and our God’s power to do all things. I encourage you to pray for your generations to come…members of your generation that you will never meet in this life. Why not stand for them, even now, before any of them are born? If you do, could you imagine what Heaven might be like when God shows you what He did when you decided to stand in the gap for them, asking God to save them? When He answered and brought generation after generation to saving faith in Christ. What an incredible celebration that would be!
Pray for your lineage! I trust that our God will answer!
Have Character!
J. Noah Russell
