This past Lord’s Day it was my turn to serve with the young people, and the lesson we were getting into was inspired from 1 Samuel chapter 1, something related to God’s calling and preparation of Samuel to be an age-turning young man.
As I was preparing I was really praying to the Lord concerning my vision and my burden when serving the young people:
Why do we serve with the young ones? Why do we need to have some special lessons just for them, from time to time? Why do we need to take care of the next generation? Is it just to “baby-sit” or preserve them, keep them, and help them to stay away from evil influences? Is it just to help them “understand the Bible” and the things of God?
It’s good to pray to the Lord about this. He needs to impress us with the importance and preciousness of the young people, so that we may see them even as He sees them, and we may treasure them as He does.
Why Do We Serve with the Young People?
There are young people’s camps, young people’s conferences, retreats, weekends out activities, young people’s meetings, etc. Why? Why do we have all these? Why do we need to serve the younger generation? In 1 Samuel 1 Hannah was desperate before the Lord to have a child, and she even vowed before Him – Lord, if You give me a son, I will give Him to You for Your service in the temple!
She identified her need with God’s need: she needed a son, and God needs young ones to be absolute for Him. This is why we serve the young people – God needs some young ones who are absolute for Him, some who are open to Him, clear concerning His desires, and cooperating with Him to end the age!
Samuel was one after God’s heart: he did not sin against God by not praying for Saul (even though he failed God), but rather prayed for him even when he didn’t deserve to be prayed for. God needs young people who are one with Him, those who are absolute for Him so that He may end this age and bring in the age of the kingdom!
The Young People – A Dispensational Instrument
For God to turn the age, He needs some who are fully one with Him, some visionaries, those who don’t care for their needs or situation but care more for God’s need and His heart’s desire. Throughout the Bible we see how God changed the age, ending one age and turning it to a different age for Him to operate in a new way in humanity. The young people are those who can really give themselves to a good cause once they see it – and when God gains them, there’s nothing that God cannot do through them!
I was recently pondering of some examples of how the young people have cooperated with God throughout history to change the age and to be a dispensational instrument in His hand…
- Moses – was called by God when he was young, but he had to go through a 40-year process of transformation so that he may be qualified to change the age from the age of the slavery to the age of entering into the good land.
- Joshua – always called “the young man who attended Moses”, he accompanied Moses on the mount to receive the law, and he was chosen by God to lead the people of Israel into the good land. He was a young man, and he was in great need of encouragement – in Joshua 1 we see that 3 times he’s encouraged with, Be strong and take courage, don’t be dismayed! He changed the age to the age of the enjoyment of the good land!
- Samuel – so one with God in all he was and did, he changed the age from the age of the judges to the age of the kings by anointing David, a man after God’s heart, to be king over Israel.
- David – called by God, a lover of God, a man after God’s heart, he loved God’s word and His purpose since he was young. He cared more for God not to be insulted by Goliath than for losing his own life. God used him greatly to establish the kingship.
- Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and the prophets – they were all young men, and they yearned for God’s will to be done on earth and for His people to return to Him. They all identified themselves with God in His desire to recover His people back to Himself, and they were absolute for the Lord!
- Daniel – a young man from Israel who was taken captive in Babylon, one who prayed for God to remember His promise to return the people of Israel back to their homeland. He was a man of preciousness, one who fought in prayer, and one who saw visions of God concerning the whole history of mankind and God’s economy.
- John the Baptist – he was a young man when he consecrated himself to the Lord, and God used him to change the age from the prophets to introducing the Lord Jesus, the Messiah! He was radical – he saw that God hates the deadness in the old Jewish religion and he separated himself unto God, and put to death anything natural!
- The Lord’s disciples – they were a bunch of young men who traveled with the Lord, who were natural and selfish, but who were transformed by the Lord in His apostles, those who changed the age to the age of the church!
- Paul and Timothy – when they both started, they were young and zealous for the Lord. The Lord really used Paul to bring the gospel all the way through Asia to Europe. He could speak freely through Paul!
- Our forerunners like John Wycliff (A.D. 1324-1384), John Huss (A.D. 1370-1415), Peter Cheltschizki (A.D. 1390-1452), United Brethren in Bohemia (A.D. 1457-1621), Kasper von Schwenckfeld (A.D. 1489-1561), they all were young men who gave their life for recovering bits and pieces of the truth that they saw in the Bible.
- Madame Guyon (A.D. 1648-1717) – a young sister, loving the Lord very much, suffered greatly for the Lord, and experienced a strong inner life which issued from her communion with the Lord.
- John Wesley (A.D. 1703-1791) and Charles Wesley (A.D. 1707-1788) along with George Whitefield, young men burning for the Lord and for the preaching of the gospel to the whole inhabited earth!
- John Nelson Darby (A.D. 1800-1882) and the British Brethren – started as young men, they were smart British men whom the Lord captured in His word and they dove into the riches of the Bible, expounding on what the Lord revealed to them from His word.
- Watchman Nee (1903 – 1952) was gained by the Lord when he was really young, and he was used greatly by the Lord to open up the Bible in its deeper truths in a further way for our daily experience. He learned many lessons from the previous generations, and he stood on the shoulders of those who were serious with the Lord in the line of His recovery in the past. He was 23 when he wrote The Spiritual Man, and he served the Lord full time for most of his life. “The Lord’s raising up of Watchman Nee in China was a big blow to the pride of many missionaries there” (source).
- Witness Lee (1905 – 1997) was also gained by the Lord in his youth, and he consecrated his life and his future to the Lord from a young age. He was greatly used by the Lord in His recovery to open up the Bible book by book through the life-studies (and then the crystallization-studies). He worked together with Watchman Nee in the same flow of the Lord in China, and then was sent to Taiwan in 1950, where the Lord brought in a great revival through him. In 1962 the Lord lead Witness Lee to the USA, where he visited many believers, held many conferences, and established Living Stream Ministry. He was faithful to continue the ministry of Watchman Nee as part of the continuation of the unique ministry in the Bible, the one divine stream.
What About our Young People Today?
The Lord needs to raise up another generation of young people, some who may not be as big, as influential, and as capable as the ones above, but some who are “small potatoes” who love the Lord with all their heart. The Lord wants to raise up an army of young people who are absolute for Him, those who say AMEN! to His will today.
These ones are predestined and called by God to have the highest life on earth and they live for the highest purpose today, to bring the Lord back! They can be the generation who will bring the Lord back!
We can be those who consecrate ourselves to the Lord to be one with Him and speak something to them to prepare them, inspire them, constitute them, and make them these ones who bring the Lord back! We may feel that we are not qualified, that we have failed too much… but for their sake we consecrate ourselves to the Lord that He may produce them as the dispensational instrument who “know their God and take action”!
Not Another Wasted Generation…
If Satan manages to distract and ruin the young people – as it seems he is prevailingly doing all around the world – he will cause this generation of young people to be wasted. Where are the young people today? In England they either study really really hard, or they are on their computers and gadgets, or they do all kinds of stupid things with an evil attitude… The ones in the country side want to move to the big cities, and the ones in the big cities are caught up in all kinds of vices, gangs, terrible things, or just cultural activities.
But who cares for what’s on God’s heart? Where are the young people who burn for the Lord and are absolute for Him? The young people today don’t care for anything except entertainment, lusts, and worldly things…. Lord Jesus, may this NOT be yet another wasted generation!
The Preciousness of the Second Generation
We need to see the preciousness of the second generation and their value in God’s hand. At the end of this age, God wants to make a dispensational move, an age-turning move. For Him to do this, He MUST obtain a dispensational instrument, a generation of young people who are His overcomers in this age!
What a privilege it is to give ourselves to the Lord to be a part of those who prepare an age-turning dispensational instrument! We don’t just want to “keep and preserve” the young people, but we want to cooperate with the Lord to produce a generation BETTER than us, those who are truly His overcomers, those who bring Him back!
We need to have our view uplifted and strengthened, so that we may see what’s really going on and be those who are one with the Lord in this! These ones are so precious and instrumental in His hands!
More on this topic online
- We can be a dispensational instrument;
- More sharing on the matter of being a dispensational instrument (agodman.com);
- Words to the Young People (via ageturners.com);
- Testimony on reading the Bible part of the dispensational instrument group;
Picture credit: young people’s conference and hoodies (via guardian).
Great post, Stefan. We surely need the Lord to open our eyes to see the preciousness of the young people. If we consider the examples that you gave both from the Bible and church history, it’s clear that God uses young people to carry out His present move on the earth. If we see this, we should be burdened to care for the young people with a view to raising them up as vessels for God’s move!