From Generation to Generation

In the Bible we find this phrase several times. God’s rule is from generation to generation (Dan 4:3), so is His salvation (Is 51:8) and His mercy (Luk 1:50). But it all starts with God giving Himself a name, a title, which will be His from generation to generation. It is the name the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob (Ex 3:15). Here God identifies Himself clearly as a God of generations and His work is through the generations. Since my arrival in France I have seen God working on the healing of the relationships between the generations. I wrote a little bit about it in my blog Be Strong and Courageous. But also during my time in the Cevennes God continued to work in this area. One example: during one meeting a member of the Abraham generation, who had been active in TJCII years ago, was present. I was able to thank him for this and honor him for all he has done and carried for God’s Kingdom. I also expressed my regret for the lack of support that the French TJCII team had experienced from TJCII Europe. When there was a time of informal sharing I set down with this beautiful man of God and have asked him to just share some of his stories. I felt transmission was taking place, just by me sitting at his feet and listening. A week later during another meeting I was sitting across from a grandfather with next to me his grandson. I had a beautiful time of sharing with the grandson and was able to really sow into this young man’s live.

Last week at the conference in Gagnières God has continued to work in this area. In one of the teachings we were urged to look for and start investing in the younger generations. And in a prophetic prayer time God used a three generation family present at the conference to touch this topic. It was so beautiful to see God moving in this area, especially since it was not something that any of us had planned!

And I say “any of us”, because in the end I did not only speak once during the conference, but I became an integral part of the team: I was co-leading a small group for sharing, part of a prayer team, and part of a pastoral team. In all the conference has been really good, full of God’s presence, great teachings, anointed worship, beautiful divine connections and so much more. I feel privileged to have been part of it this year and, God willing, I’ll go back next year. God used the catholic worship leader and me also for healing in the relationships with protestant and evangelical believers.

Personally God has also given me a huge gift during the conference. On Thursday morning during worship I felt a desire and a freedom to dance. I have danced before during worship, but not too often and mostly in a hidden corner. Now I felt total freedom to dance also in the front. Hélène, the worship leader, encouraged me afterwards to continue to dance. She had felt how my dancing had brought a spiritual breakthrough. The next day during worship, while I was dancing/walking around the room, there was a prophetic word that described exactly my movement. And the lady who had received the prophetic word had not seen, what I was doing! At moments like these I am just amazed at God’s creativity and the flow of the Spirit!

For those among you who understand French, I warmly invite you to visit the YouTube channel of the conference and enjoy the good teachings, both of this year and of other years.

A new movement

On Saturday after the conference I traveled to Paray-le-Monial, also divinely orchestrated: two rides with two different Belgian ladies, and with both I discovered amazing parallels between our lives! In Paray I was able to participate in the last part of the Jesus Festival, an ecumenical worship festival

that was organized now for the fourth time. Part of this festival was a 24 hour worship event in the beautiful Romanesque basilica of Paray-le-Monial. Hélène, the worship leader from the conference, had also come to lead a 1,5 hour slot during the night. She invited me to be there to and to dance. So, I went, at 3.30h in the morning and I danced for 1,5 hours… It was more than amazing!!! Dancing like that in this century old house of God… I can’t describe all of the things that I felt in the Spirit while dancing there… I definitively prayed, that this worship (also the one through the dancing) would bring a new movement to the church. And if you would like to discover the beautiful music Hélène wrote, you are welcome to visit her website.

After this worship watch I was filled too much with God’s presence and joy that I decided to stay until the morning. So I was able to pray and dance along with two other worship teams. The first one was an ecumenical worship team with also a love for Israel. So with them we also prayed for Israel and the peace of Jerusalem. I had not necessarily expected to encounter that, so this was a huge joy for me! And during the last worship watch 2 members of the previous team stayed on and danced with banners. This was very powerful, especially since it were two men and one of them was a Roman Catholic priest! This was the first time for me to see a priest use a banner like this in worship and I loved it!!!

The cherry on the cake was the closing Eucharist, where non-Catholics were welcomed, not as invitees, but as brothers and sisters. Also the priest responsible for the pilgrimages in Paray-le-Monial and the man responsible for the Jeus Festival together made mention of an historic event that took place on this date, August 24th. It is known as St. Bartholomew's Day massacre.

In this massacre between 5000 and 30,000 Protestants were murdered by Catholics. The priest and the other responsible commemorated the repentant words of pope John Paul II at the World Youth Days in Paris in 1997. We were also invited to repent ourselves for all of our current sins against the unity in the Body of Messiah. And they asked forgiveness for our arrogance and pride as Catholics. For me, this was a very powerful and hope filled moment!!

I have the joy of staying in Paray for several weeks, spending time with my sister and later on also some days with my mother. Thank you for keeping this family time also in your prayers 😊.

In order to be kept posted, click here.