Seek God’s Kingdom for the Generations

by Ken Pierpont

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Fervor For the Future

The nearer a person seeks the heart of God, the more he or she possesses a vision within for multi-generation faithfulness. This fervor is also true with the church. Thus, a church that grows cold and apostate is one that speaks little and cares less for the generations to follow. It is a church more concerned with happiness and prosperity than with its holiness and posterity. That congregation concerns itself with its own comforts than with the world and the church its sons and daughters, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will inherit. They insist on their own preferences without regard to the effect such selfishness has on the next generations.

Yet when the Spirit brings revival and they begin to seek his kingdom, men and women of God grow close to the heart of God and begin to cherish God’s values. These values include a desire for generational faithfulness to God.

Vision for the Eternal

The great missionary Adonirum Judson reflects this great attribute of seeking God’s kingdom and learning more of His heart. The final weeks of his life, as recorded by his son Edward Judson in 1883, reveal that the great missionary experienced an awakening…As his physical strength ebbed, his inner man underwent a renewal of spirit. The effect of that renewal stirred his heart for the generations to follow, for the glory of God. These observations on the final days of Adonirum’s life were written by his wife in a letter to his sister. Notice how he was taken more and more with Christ and with things eternal:

“There was something exceedingly beautiful in the decline of your brother’s life—more beautiful than I can describe though the impression will remain with me as a sacred legacy until I go to meet him where sun shall never set, and life shall never end. He had been, from my first acquaintance with him, an uncommonly spiritual Christian, exhibiting his richest graces in the unguarded intercourse of private life, but during his last year it seemed as though the light of the world on which he was entering had been sent to brighten his upward pathway. Every subject on which we conversed, every book we read, every incident that occurred, whether trivial or important, had a tendency to suggest some peculiarly spiritual train of thought, till it seemed to me that, more than ever before, ‘Christ was all his theme.’ Something of the same nature was also noted in his preaching… He was in the habit… of studying his subject for the Sabbath, audibly, and in my presence, at which time he was frequently so much affected as to weep, and so overwhelmed with the vastness of his conceptions as to be obliged to abandon his theme and choose another. My own illness at the commencement of the year had brought eternity very near to us, and rendered death, the grave, and the bright heaven beyond it, familiar subjects of conversation.”1

When he was touched by God, he had a renewed unction in the exercise of his gifts, and he had a vision of a long unbroken line of his generations gathered around the throne of Jesus. He had taken such initiative to spread God’s word all through his life and now, as he reached his last hours, he became overwhelmed with his sense of responsibility.

“I believe he has sometimes been thought eloquent, both in conversation and in the sacred desk; but the fervid, burning eloquence, the deep pathos, the touching tenderness, the elevation of thought, and intense beauty of expression, which characterized those private teachings, were not only beyond what I had ever heard before, but such as I felt sure arrested his own attention, and surprised even himself. About this time he began to find unusual satisfaction and enjoyment in his private devotions, and seemed to have new objects of interest continually rising to his mind, each of which in turn became special subjects of prayer. Among these, one of the most prominent was the conversion of his posterity. He remarked that he felt impressed with the duty of praying for their children and their children’s children down to the latest generation. He also prayed most fervently that his impressions on this particular subject might be transferred to his sons and daughters, and thence to their offspring, so that he should ultimately meet a long, unbroken line of descendants before the throne of God, where all might join together in ascribing everlasting praises to their Redeemer.”1 (Emphasis mine)

Discovering the Heart of God

When a man walks with God and nears the throne of God, he acquires the heart of God—and the heart of God is for a godly posterity. Men and women of God are concerned, burdened with godly generations. They are not content to simply survive the entrapments of this present world and make it through safe to heaven. They want to build bridges of faith for those who follow them on the path. They want to plant trees of loyalty to truth so their generations can live in the shade and eat the fruit of them.

“O God, thou hast taught me from my youth: and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works. Now also when I am old and gray-headed, O God, forsake me not; until I have showed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come” (Psalm 71:17-18).

For the Sake of Our Children

As we seek God’s kingdom, like Adoniram Judson, may Christ become the theme of our lives. Oh that God would give each of us a passion for Him that is not only instilled in our own hearts, but in the hearts of the generations that follow! I invite you to pray the following prayer:

God of Eternity and of all the generations to come in all the earth be honored and glorified by all people for all time. Be exalted in the ages to come. Today give us an eternal vision to see into the future with the eyes of faith. Stir up in us a spirit of intercession for the nations around us and the generations ahead of us. May we live and speak and work and pray and serve with that eternal impulse always beating within us. For Jesus’ sake and for Thine is the Kingdom, and the power and the glory forever. -Amen.

1. From The Life of Adoniram Judson by his son Edward Judson, pages 530-531. This book is available for purchase from our Online Store. Also in the Lives of the Three Mrs. Judsons by Arabella W. Stuart pages 338-340. Full text is online at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16863/16863-h/16863-h.htmOffsite Link

Ken Pierpont has been married to his wife, Lois, since 1979. They have eight children—four sons and four daughters. A pastor for more than 20 years, Ken currently serves at IBLP’s Headquarters in Oak Brook, IL.