One of the most beautiful things that a child does with his father is to try to put on his father's shoes or try to step on the footprints that his father leaves. This is an image of discipleship. In our faith we follow someone's footsteps. A father, a teacher, and a hero, none of us is the first to walk this path. We all have someone we follow.
In our faith we leave footprints to guide others. A son, a friend, a recent convert.
No one can walk a path alone. That is the beginning of discipleship. With all the good that his mother and grandmother imparted to Timothy, a paternal and apostolic impartation was still missing. So Pablo reminds him and tells him not to be ashamed, because Pablo was in jail and anyone who has someone in jail could feel ashamed. Scholars say Timothy was 16 when he and his mother converted to Christianity and 21 when he accompanied Paul on his first missionary journey. Timothy did not walk that path alone. He followed in the footsteps of Paul his father in faith. Pablo knew that the path was getting deeper. That's why he writes a letter to Timothy giving him practical advice on how to lead a church, how to handle his emotions, temptations, decisions.
Today you need to understand that everything that God does operates generationally, nothing that God said to you ends with you. Everything that God says to you, is intended to continue for the next generations...
- God uses the first generation to inaugurate something
- The second generation is to establish and perfect something
- The 3rd generation to grow and multiply
- A 4 generation to rule and dominate the earth
God thinks much more than you, when God gives you a word, he not only looks at you, but he looks at your children and even your grandchildren.
- The patriarchs in the bible Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
- Abraham lived to be 175 years old, and passed the baton to Isaac.
- Isaac lived 180 years, then Isaac passed it on to Jacob.
- Jacob lived 147 years, he passed it on to Joseph.
- Joseph lived 110 years, these 4 generations left an order on earth of 612 years because where there is a generational vision, God rules the earth from generation to generation.
The letters that Paul writes to Timothy are personal letters, where the son's weaknesses were being written, this is not like the Corinthian or Ephesian letter that was read in front of the whole church. This is a personal letter that the Pope writes to his son, which will help him and confront his weaknesses, this was not for the world, it was for Timothy's son. Paul had no idea that what he was writing was going to be passed on to church planting and disciple making, leadership.
This is for someone who feels that what you are doing is insignificant or not important, you have no idea that the little you are doing, God is going to use it in the next generations to see it in a testimony of glory, what God started with you is going to perfect it, it does not finish it, it perfects it. Paul tells Timoteo the faith you received from your grandmother Loida and your mother Eunice and I want you to understand, women at that time were illiterate, they had no voice within the church, they could not preach, nor did they lead. But that woman left an inheritance, but now comes Timothy who was the 3rd generation. There was a deficit in Timothy's life, when only grandmothers and mothers raise you there is a deficit in you. I have discovered that all men who grew up without a father with only a mother tend to reject all confrontation of the male sex.
Men who grew up without dads tend to get along with women, they accept a woman's correction, but when a man corrects them, they resent it because they have an unconscious wound from not having had a dad in their life. There are many who are hurt because they don't know how deep this fell. Because just as a father forms, the absence of one deforms you. That is where the paternity of the Apostle Paul comes in, he came to deal with something, because his grandmother and mother transferred a spirit of faith to him, an unfeigned faith. But Timothy had a problem of cowardice, of fear and Pablo appears to tell him, remember that I placed my hands on you to release what you lacked. God gave you a spirit of power, love and self-control, because he was fighting one of the strongest battles, Timothy stayed with one of the largest churches of the apostle Paul, the church of Ephesus Timothy was dealing with battles, struggles, persecutions and Paul tells him when I put my hands on you it was not an emotional touch, I released you a spirit of passion for God. You cannot let go of what God started with you, it has to multiply and go to the next generation. When you let go of the call, you are aborting your next generation.
Pastor Yoanny.
