California and the Northwest have produced some of the greatest spiritual leaders over the last century and a half and are still producing them. Some are not just teachers but true spiritual fathers and mothers. As we covered previously, one of the ways Israel honored their fathers and mothers was to keep drinking from the wells that they dug, acknowledging and being thankful for them. We should be honored by drinking from the wells that they dug, not only because of all we can still learn from them, but also because the Lord will honor His commitment to bless those who do this.
One of the great spiritual and moral toxins that has been originating from Hollywood and polluting the world has been the dishonoring of fathers and mothers. For more than half a century, it has been especially resolute to attack fathers and fatherhood, but recently it has begun to attack mothers and motherhood as well. Think about it: Almost any father figure in a movie or television program from Hollywood over the last half century has been mean-spirited, evil, or an idiot. This has opened one of the biggest gates of hell of perversion and lawlessness in our country, as well as in many other countries. This is one of the main things that the Lord can no longer tolerate.
In contrast to this, He will release the spirit of Elijah again to restore the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers, so that He won’t have to come and smite the land with a curse (see Malachi 4). Because we are told that what we bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and what we bind in heaven will be bound on the earth, it is the church’s responsibility to confront and overcome the great evils of the times. As the church begins to esteem spiritual fathers and mothers, honoring them by drinking from their wells, which could be reading their books, or even writing books about them, it can begin to heal our land and keep the Lord from smiting the land.
The main point of revival is to return to the Father, God, but we also need a revival of honoring the fathers and mothers or we will soon suffer a great calamity. Let our hearts be gathered to Him again, which also means gathering with one another. Let us honor our family, including our “family tree,” the remarkable heritage that we have as Christians.
In the world, mothers and motherhood are now being attacked like fathers in movies and television so that the children are being promoted as the only ones with wisdom or goodness. We may think these are just dramas or fantasies that don’t really make a difference, but a large part of the education about life that the emerging generations are receiving now are from movies, television, and video games. What is the result of this? Exactly what Paul predicted for these times in II Timothy 3:1-8:
But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.
For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to
parents, ungrateful, unholy,
unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,
treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God;
holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; avoid such men as these.
For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down
with sins, led on by various impulses,
always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of
depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith.
These characteristics are now prevalent in our youth and are even glorified in movies and television. What was the fate of Jannes and Jambres, as well as others like Korah who stood against Moses? When they did not repent of their rebellion, they and the people who heeded them were destroyed as even the earth opened and swallowed them. Their poison could not be tolerated because it would lead to the death of many others, just as the poison of moral and spiritual rebellion coming out of the entertainment industry is doing today.
God loves all men and desires for them to come to the knowledge of the truth. He would much rather show mercy than judgment, but there is a time when, because of the corrupting influence of the rebellion to destroy many more, destruction of the source of poison is necessary. Until it has happened, there is a remedy—repentance that cuts off the poison.
