The rising of generation xtreme - part 5 in the serialising of Carl Anderson's Changing Of The Guard

Moses And Joshua

I remember reading the whole trilogy of The Lord of the Rings as a fifteen year-old. In one section during the second of the books, The Two Towers, there is a huge battle scene, and old Gandalf with his staff and young Aragorn with his sword fight side by side. Each one has a different style of fighting and each item in their hand accomplishes different things, but each is unique and the one cannot win without the assistance of the other.

The young need what the old have built. Joshua needs Moses.

"An old man, going a lone highway,
Came at the evening, cold and gray,
To a chasm, vast and deep and wide,
Through which was flowing a sullen tide.
The old man crossed in the twilight dim;
The sullen stream had no fears for him;
But he turned when safe on the other side,
And built a bridge to span the tide.
"Old man," said a fellow pilgrim near,
"You are wasting strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the ending day;
You never again must pass this way;
You have crossed the chasm, deep and wide-
Why build you the bridge at the eventide?"

The builder lifted his old gray head:
"Good friend, in the path I have come," he said,
There follows after me today
A youth whose feet must pass this way.
This chasm that has been naught to me
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building the bridge for him."

-anonymous.

"We are like dwarfs," wrote the monk Bernard of Chartres. "Seated on the shoulders of giants. We see more things than the ancients and things more distant, but it is due neither to the sharpness of our sight nor the greatness of our stature. It is simply because they have lent us their own."

In the same way, the old need what the young are building. Moses needs Joshua.

Carl Anderson

One example from church history is from the England of the 1600's. Even then, the Holy Spirit was revealing to the young something of the power of the previous generations and challenging some to walk in it, but with an increase. George Fox, founder of the Quakers, saw this. As a young man of twenty, he went out in the fields surrounding his home and sought God with all his heart. As a result, God poured out an unusually strong measure of anointing on his life and he began not only to preach but to move in strong discernment and even in signs and wonders. The older generation of leadership needed this fresh input that was placed upon him for adding to their ministry, for they had a strong power to preach but the power of the spirit didn't permeate their lives like it did in young George's. Just one example of this is drawn from his journal. He began to walk in continual discernment of people around him, so much so that the older leaders were amazed.

"As I was walking," wrote Fox in 1652 in England, "I heard old people and workpeople to say, 'Here is such a man as never was, he knows people's thoughts...several people came also and I discerned their conditions...and the mighty power of the Lord was so over all that the priest Bennet spoke to me and asked me if I had the spirit of discerning, I told him I had, which made him to tremble."

As we have already pointed out in earlier chapters, there is a unique calling in this very hour, lasting perhaps an entire generation of 40 years, for an expression of Christianity to burst forth which is special for our times. And this expression encompasses the generations now present working together, honoring each other, and giving each other room to make mistakes, have successes, and be different from each other. Look at how the writer of Hebrews expounds upon this same theme, taking as his subject the fathers and examples of the faith that have gone before and linking them into the work of his own generation. "And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they should not be made perfect" (Hebrews 11:39-40).

In the context of the "last days," nobody knows or can know the exact day or hour, and nobody really knows exactly how the history of mankind will end, though we all share many views about the sequence of events leading up to the end. We know that our Lord Jesus Christ will come again. This we know.

So, either this book and subsequent revelation of understanding is indeed for the very last of the last days, or in greater context, perhaps it is for just another generation in-between hundreds of others. Regardless, you are the "Joshua Generation." As we have seen already and will yet see, you are called to pioneer; to set the captives free and proclaim freedom to the ends of the earth.

The old and the young, working together like a family is to be for a true "end times" generation, so as we get closer and closer to the end of days, truly what Peter highlighted from the book of Joel and what Zechariah saw will be seen in greater and greater intensity.

What is the scriptural warrant for true end-times ministry? If you can catch the vision which this chapter is addressing, you will be able to better work towards the common good of all. Here's the vision: God is building His family in the earth. He is building a special network of unique relationships. These include, but are not limited to; fathers to sons, mothers to daughters, young men and women to other young men and women, uncles to nephews and aunts to nieces. The list goes on. I am speaking here of the spiritual connection between relationships and not so much a natural connection, though natural connections will and may exist. X'ers long for true community. A community of committed relationships surrounding them where they can give and receive and be real with each other is what we are looking for. That is why small groups and cell structures work so well with our generation. In the smaller group setting, relationships can be built to a level of being able to be open, honest, and give and take. We can express our feelings and be challenged to change in a non-threatening environment. The less "man-made structure" the better.

And God is at the bottom of this deep yearning and answers it with the calling of young and old relationships together.

You can buy Changing Of The Guard from Cross Rhythms Direct for £10.44.