In Step with the Spirit by Sarah Bowling

Author:Sarah Bowling
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Charismatic Interest;REL079000;REL012120;REL067090
ISBN: 9781493411696
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2017-07-31T16:00:00+00:00

They Spread the Faith

A fourth characteristic of supernatural families is that they are contagious—and I do not mean that in the sense of viruses or bacteria. I mean that their faith is generative, not contained within themselves.

Consider the examples of Jesus and John the Baptist. Their parents were aware that their sons’ lives were rooted in divine mandates for multiplied expression and impact. Indeed, John the Baptist was the forerunner for Jesus and blazed the trail for people to connect with Jesus, the Messiah, the Christ and Son of the living God. Consider the impact John the Baptist had in Israel at his time. Priests and Levites came to him, inquiring about his identity (see John 1:19). Crowds came to him to be baptized (see Matthew 3:5–6; Luke 3:7, 15–17, 21–22). And he confronted religious and political leaders of his day (see Matthew 3:7–10; Luke 3:19–20).

Jesus was altogether magnetic, too. People could not stay away from Him—not religious leaders, like Nicodemus (see John 3:1–21); not wayfaring, ostracized women, like the woman at the well (see John 4:7–30); not tax collectors, like Zaccheus (see Luke 19:1–10). And there were heaps more. Indeed, Jesus said of Himself, “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself” (John 12:32). Jesus was irresistible!

Philip, too, was a man who spread the news about Jesus wherever he went, as we have already seen. But we also see that he had four daughters, all of whom were prophetesses (see Acts 21:8–9). Clearly, his spiritual lineage carried on to his daughters, who exercised their gifts for others.

For supernatural families, you could say that Psalm 145:4 is the golden standard: “One generation shall praise Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts.”

When I think about my own family and heritage in this way, I am moved by how many of my preceding generations, as well as my husband’s ancestors, God has touched. I see the Gospel spreading through my mom’s ministry and my ministry and now through my kids. It is my conviction, from both biblical foundations and personal experience, that God intends our faith to be contagious and continuous through generations.

We do not need to look far to find modern-day examples of families of faith who are contagious. One such example is the Osteen family. I grew up knowing about Joel Osteen’s dad, John Osteen. To me, Pastor John was larger than life. I remember watching him as a little girl, when my mom ministered at his church in Houston. At that time, Pastor John’s wife, Dodie, was in the hospital, on the verge of death because of the cancer that had overtaken her body. I watched Pastor John and listened to his words. While I knew he was concerned, I also saw him choose faith over fear.

I remember wondering at that time about his kids, who were about my age, and how they were handling this crisis with their mom. I have heard them say that while those

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