The Dream
A velociraptor grinned me down in my bed, ticking its long claw on the creaky wooden floors. In that same bed I learned to lift my feet off the ground and fly. I finally defeated the enemy of my youth, fear. With the power of Jesus my dreams were reclaimed, they became my territory to be explored. It is in our dreams that some of the mysteries of God are revealed to us.
It was in this familiar setting that I found myself in a gigantic warehouse. I navigated through the barely lit corridors and discovered my childhood friend’s home. My friend’s father was like a second father to me. We spent so much time together during those hot Redding summers that we might as well have been siblings. My friends father was a constant in my life. Both his strengths and his weaknesses were exposed.
There are small things that normally pass my memory by -like the color of a building a conversation with a friend. But when heaven touches earth, those same small things imprint themselves onto my memory. On the day that my friend’s father died, I was walking on a grassy knoll on University of the Pacific’s campus on my way to my organic chemistry class. My eyes misted as I got the phone call. It was a beautiful day. The sun was high, it wasn’t too hot, and the wind was a gentle lover of the leaves in the trees. Two hundred miles away, he died suddenly of a massive heart attack. My mother raced to his house where his wife was waiting and attempted CPR, but to no avail. Without his father, my friend’s life would never be the same.
Now fifteen years later, back in my dream. I walked the hallways of his house within a large warehouse. As I walked through the room, a realization was planted into my mind.
The first realization was that my friend’s father had given me an inheritance. I was told that he had written me into his will. The second realization was of my purpose in that house. I was searching for my inheritance.
You see, my friends father was wealthy. Private planes, boats, luxury cars all nestled into a storybook forty acres. The extended driveway to the front of their house circled a private pond, that I spent my summers fishing, jet ski’ing and swimming in.
In my dream, I curiously searched through the abandoned building to uncover what he had given to me. Suddenly, I saw him. But there was something different about him. He was without all the flaws that I remembered. He was warm and generous with his smile. This was not the same man that I knew, but one renewed. This was a man that had spent time in the presence of God.
“Tim, your inheritance is this: The greatest riches you can pursue is that which you can pass onto your grandchildren.”
Then this verse from proverbs was given to me: “Grandparents have the crowning glory of life: grandchildren!” Proverbs 17:6 TPT
True Inheritance
There is something unique about an inheritance that you can pass on to your grandchildren. With your kids, you can be overbearing. For a time you can make their decisions for them. You can lead them by a show of power. This rarely works out.
God does not coerce us into following him. Jesus lead us by example, not by manipulation imposed authority. He always gives us the choice.
Eventually your children will leave your house and find their own adventures – they will find love and have children of their own. When your child begin to pass on ideas and character traits to their children, this is the measure of true riches. These conversations and moments of inheritance between your children and grandchildren, you will not have direct influence over.
Only the seeds that were planted in your children’s hearts that truly took root are going to sustain to be passed onto their children.
You have the highest level of influence compared to anyone else in your child’s life. Your true riches, your true inheritance are the things that flow through your family and into the next generations.
So lead by example, show your children a true hunger and thirst for that which Paul points Timothy towards. True holiness, justice, faithfulness, love, hope and tender humility! Follow the voice of God in your life and let your children follow Jesus because of the fruits they see in you and your spouse!
Abandon Short Term Riches
Abandon the pursuit of short term riches at the sacrifice of long term wealth. The kind of short term riches that I am speaking about demand your legacy from you as a sacrifice. Long term wealth, your legacy, can only be found with wisdom. Long term wealth comes from the father, because he lavishes upon us all good things. Be extravagant in your generosity, both of your time and finances.
Pass on wisdom to your children in a way that it will withstand the test of time and be passed onto their children.
What About Money?
Money is included in inheritance, I am simply de-emphasizing it. Money simply gives you a larger capacity to be more of what you already are. So pursue wisdom, pursue holiness and pursue the voice of God. Let your family take these first as an inheritance. Then as you build, grow and invest during your time in this world the money that you make will further the kingdom through your wisdom and generosity.
The enemy’s greatest fear is a child of God that willingly submits themself to the kingdom of heaven and also views the inheritance they pass to their grandchildren as their greatest mandate.
It is here that I will leave you:
The benevolent man leaves an inheritance
that endures to his children’s children,
but the wealth of the wicked is treasured up for the righteous. Proverbs 13:22 TPT
Want to find God’s voice in your life? Join me in #VOXDEI, a month or year long effort to hear the voice of God.
