KEEPER OF THE SOUL by Peet van der West Huizen
Generational Purpose
It is said in the wise words of Charles Spurgeon that every generation needs regeneration. In this current age it is still an evident truth of our day. We always have to consider how we came to be, give proper honor to whom it is due and positively make a lasting impact of growth for the next generation. We do not despise the day of small beginnings in the hands of our ancient predecessors. This generation has the privilege to stand on the shoulders of spiritual giants. The Spirit of God within man has done great things through man in the earth.
Psalm. 145:4”One generation shall praise Your works to another.”
Time gone by and seasons to come will record the furtherance and progression of this generation. It is recorded that King David served his generation. The experiences of his life forms part of the history of our day. The building bricks of our history are well and less well lived lives. Each life telling their story, thus, his-story.
Reconciling people to God is the beginning of purpose and destiny. What will this generation be remembered for? What should this generation re-member in the earth. The ‘re-gene-ing’ of the human race is in progress. Love is the powerful gene that cures, restores and liberates this generation to fulfill its divine purpose.
This purpose comes to pass through both natural and spiritual relationships. Husbands and wives build families. Families become the foundation of a nation and set standards for society. The global village consists of different dynamic connections. In unity between synchronized parts a greater purpose for each generation unfolds.
These connecting parts form a place of purposeful positioning and function. It is like a body. The vision of the body determines the placing of each part. A part or member of the body fulfills it’s purpose if it effectively strengthens, builds, edifies and assures the operation of the body as a holistic entity. There isn’t much room for personal agendas, selfish gains or division in a well functioning and healthy body.
“without being connected to the Body, our purpose becomes temporal and not perpetual” by Roger Roth
The emerging of the Body of Christ requires proper spiritual connection. God’s intent awakens us from our sleep and disconnect us from personal desires of the flesh. The proper working of each part in the Body contributes to the maturing of love. The contribution of the individual as important as it is, is still just a part of the whole. In each member of the Body giving their part the purpose of the Body becomes perpetual.
Ephesians 4:15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
Ephesians 4:16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
As each part works properly the body does what it’s been destined for. The age of abounding grace empowers the Body with abounding love. The freewill of man can now freely properly connect to divine vision. The voluntary heart is the essence of courage. The Body connects in that love. The love that Jesus manifested always surpasses any knowledge, judgement and offenses. This kind of Bodily love produces the excellence, sincerity and the fruits of righteousness.
We willingly connect to those whom we need to be connected to. The life of the body is in the blood. The blood flows throughout the body. The blood orderly flows through the body. The body is purposefully and specifically joined together.
The question remains…to whom should I be connected to? The ‘who’ also requires a ‘where’ we are connected to. This determines our function, our purpose and role to the unfolding awakening of the righteous Kingdom. We can find some principles to this place of connection. As leaders it might be the critical point of manifesting the vision that God has given.
John 17:6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
Jesus refers to His disciples as ‘the people whom You gave Me”. God gave Jesus some to become His generation in the earth. He touched, healed and ministered to the world, yet acknowledged that out of the world some were given to Him. Jesus gave all that He was able to promote the lives of people, yet He spent most of His time with a selected few given to Him.
It is a tremendous responsibility to care for a soul and be responsible for those given to us from God. The question remains though: who are those given to you? We can preach and minister to the world at large, yet we care for those entrusted unto us.
There are three parties involved in this Scripture. We have God, Jesus and the disciples. God is the ‘giver’ of the souls, Jesus is the ‘carer’, and the souls the responders. God supernaturally connects souls and select those who need to be with one another. Jesus made His role known to us as He said that He manifested God’s name. He gave them the things given to Him, He gave them God’s word and words, He prayed for them, He kept them, He sanctified them and prayed to take them to where He is.
The disciples or sons of Jesus were to: know God and Jesus, keep the word given to them by Jesus, believe in what Jesus said and who He was, receive the word. The disciples glorified Jesus, kept word to love one another, to have the joy of Jesus fulfilled in them, to be not of this world, be send into the world, sanctified through truth, to be a testimony so that others can also believe in Jesus through them, to be glory carriers, follow Jesus and that the love of Jesus will be in them even so as Jesus.
Jesus amplify the intent of God as: glorification, to give eternal life, to know God and His Son, a specific work with a specific people and unity.
John 6:65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”
The people whom God has given unto you will be granted by the Father to come to you. The ones that were given to you respond to your words, they believe in the word that you speak and know that you’ve been given to them by the Father.
Malachi 4:5-6 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”
There will be those who turn their hearts to you in response to your love and heart towards them.
These will grow and mature.
John 8:35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever.
The ones who take responsibility will remain and build towards the vision.
Psalms 121:5 The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade on your right hand.
Many people consider God to be the keeper without properly connecting to those they have been entrusted to. It is often through the hand of man that God keeps and sustains us.
Hebrews 13:17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.
The apostle Paul briefly refers to the special relationship between leaders and their followers. It might also be called the father to son or a mentor to mentee relationship. The command to obey the leader that is set over you, is proven, in an inward agreement. These leaders will go before you and lead you as such.
To submit yourself is a willing act of surrender. It is a safe place, to have someone, set by God, in your life to keep watch over your soul. From time to time there might be some impartation needed to align or direct certain desires, affections or a seat of feelings. It is a Godly thing to have someone in your life that will give account and a good report of your life. This God ordained order is profitable for you and for your advantage. Keepers of the soul are not limiters, they are liberators and cultivators.
Times and seasons change and might still do for ages to come. The constants and the variables are often used as the running soldiers to qualify man’s reasoning. Emphasis is often placed on less important principles while the greater principles and good are easily left behind.
Something needs to be said about the age or time we are living in. Society thrives on terminology like, freedom of speech and being, human rights, liberation and more adaptive lifestyles. It is for each person to decide for themselves and up to the individual to determine the kind of lifestyle and standards they will pursue. Each option will give its own reward in due time. Time catches up to us when we confuse the temporal with the more permanent. Generational freedom and bondage can be determined in the single or corporate act of a declaration that sets a motion in action.
Religion and our personal preferences and perception has altered the principle of leadership in a great way. Rightly should we pursue greater heights and renewal of the mind.
2 Kings 2:6 Then Elijah said to him, “Stay here; the Lord has sent me to the Jordan.”
And he replied, `“As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So the two of them walked on.
Elijah and Elisha walked on till they saw eye to eye. It is in that moment where the generational garment touched Elisha. Elisha stayed with Elijah till the end. The keeper of His soul became the giver of the rich anointing of God’s majestic work. The son became a father. The follower became the leader. Gods’ power was once again evident and present in the earth. The rich mature anointing passed on from one generation unto another.
In Honor of those who seek to honor.
• Peet van der West Huizen is a ministry son and the Pastor of ‘House of My Glory’ in Pretoria, South Africa. You can contact Peet at pspeet@houseofmyglory.com
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