Generational Synergy
In 2001, I was in a season of spiritual transition leading to what I do today: God was preparing me to be a voice of awakening to America. A short time before this I had received a powerful encounter with the Lord during which He showed me His broken heart for America. I wept uncontrollably for three and a half hours. In that visitation, He said, “I must have this nation.” This was said in the context of the worldwide harvest He has planned.
Shortly after this encounter, I was leading a corporate prayer time for the reviving of passion and purpose to a ministry in Texas. God, as He sometimes does, began speaking things to me that I did not presently understand. New wine stretches and reshapes wineskins, and mine was about to be expanded.
“I need you to agree in prayer with the ministry’s founder,” He spoke from my spirit to my mind.
“He’s dead,” my mind replied to this voice, “I can’t agree in prayer with a dead person!” I wasn’t actually trying to correct the Holy Spirit; I was trying to analyze what was said in order to ascertain if it was truly Him speaking.
The voice spoke again, “So? His prayers aren’t dead. And until this generation comes into agreement with what I promised him, I can’t do it. I need the synergy of the ages.”
My wineskin almost burst. I had never consciously considered agreeing with the prayers of—and promises to—a previous generation, and I had never heard of “the synergy of the ages.”
After stumbling through the remainder of the prayer time, I sought for understanding.
Until You Agree, I Can’t
I realized God hadn’t said, “I won’t.” He had clearly said that without this generation’s agreement with the founder, “I can’t answer his prayers, doing what I promised him.”
I began to ponder Hebrews 11, remembering the heroes of faith listed there along with some of their amazing exploits. Interestingly, however, the passage is also clear that some of those faith-heroes did not see the fulfillment of their promises. This has always seemed somewhat contradictory to me. When God searched history to accent great lives of faith, He chose to list some that did NOT receive the fulfillment of their God-given promises. These people went to the grave with unrealized promises from God, yet they had truly believed, even making it into the great Hall of Faith. Clearly, they weren’t deficient in their walk of faith; why then did they die without seeing the promises fulfilled?
The last two verses of Hebrews 11 give us the amazing answer. They did not receive the fulfillment of their promises because God wouldn’t allow them to be “complete” without us. That is incredible! We, today, are a continuation of these individuals’ callings and assignments. The Greek word translated “complete” also means “to finish; to mature; to reach the intended goal.”(1) Think about the ramifications of this: without us, God can’t finish what He began through those saints; what He started through them cannot mature or reach its intended goal until we grab the baton and run our leg of the race. That is mind-blowing!
God makes promises to people, knowing full well He will deliver on those promises through their children, grandchildren, or spiritual descendants. I wonder what I may be finishing for a pastor or teacher from a few decades ago? Or perhaps even for some flag-waving patriot warrior?
The generations are far more interconnected than most of us realize. In God’s mind, accomplishing something through our descendants is the same as doing it through us. Our comparatively shortsighted approach assumes every promise He makes will take place momentarily, or at the very least before we die! Meanwhile, God feels no pressure and understands that if He fulfills His promises through our offspring (natural or spiritual), the accomplishments were by us, as well as by them.
The Synergy of the Ages
Synergy is a fascinating concept. Basically, it is the multiplication of power through a combined effort. In almost all cases in the physical world, one plus one equals two. But not when people work together. When two or more people combine their efforts and strengths, power is multiplied—not just added to. God so prioritizes unity and agreement that He created a phenomenon through which power multiplies when people work together!
Synergy, however, not only operates in the physical realm; it also exists in the spiritual realm. Prayer is one obvious example. Spiritual synergy takes place when two or more people agree in prayer. The result is that through this multiplied power much more is accomplished than would have been had they prayed alone. Leviticus 26:8 teaches us about this power of multiplication, “Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand, and your enemies shall fall before your sword.” Spiritually, that’s powerful; mathematically, however, it makes no sense. But something unusual and supernatural takes place through agreement: synergy. When we agree in prayer, power increases exponentially.
Synergy also occurs through generational connections. When the ways and spiritual strengths of one generation are walked in by the next, power and fruit multiply. Spiritual mantles, another word for callings and giftings, multiply in effectiveness through generational synergy (2 Kings 2:9). God’s plan is always for the present generation to build on and multiply the strengths of the previous. This is the synergy of the ages—multiplied power and fruitfulness through generational agreement and honor.
In Al Sander’s book Crisis in Morality!, he compares descendants of an atheist, Max Jukes, to the offspring of the well-known revivalist of that same era, Jonathan Edwards:
“Max Jukes...married an ungodly girl and among their descendants were 310 who died as paupers, 150 as criminals, 7 as murderers, 100 as drunkards and more than half of the women were prostitutes.
“Jonathan Edwards...lived at the same time and married a godly girl [Sarah Pierpont]. An investigation was made of 1,394 known descendants of theirs. Of these descendants, 13 became college presidents, 65 college professors, 3 United States senators, 30 judges, 100 lawyers, 60 physicians, 75 army and navy officers, 100 preachers and missionaries, 60 authors of prominence, one a vice-president of the United States, 80 became public officials...and 295 college graduates, among whom were governors of states and ministers to foreign countries.”(2)
Could any testimony more powerfully make my point? Success, favor, and blessing can multiply down through the generations. But due to our ignorance in this area, we sometimes unknowingly break the generational storyline God is writing.
When Holy Spirit spoke to me that day, I was already aware of synergistic prayer. I knew I could agree in prayer with the person next to me, and power would be multiplied. I just didn’t know I could agree with the generation behind me! Generational synergy - the synergy of the ages - was nowhere on my radar. Once God had awakened me to the principle, however, He wasn’t about to stop with one ministry. Before He was finished, Holy Spirit would challenge me to reach back to our nation’s Founders, agreeing with what He had birthed through them.
Pray with me:
Father, as we contemplate the importance of generational connection and agreement, we marvel at Your ways. The synergy of the ages involves understanding how much You honor those who have gone before us, and how much You require us to honor and continue their legacy. We thank You for fathers and mothers in the faith, as well as in the natural. We thank You for the price paid by those who came before us.
As we now look forward, we ask for revelation of this incredible concept You call “the synergy of the ages.” We embrace and honor those who have gone before us, and ask for a multiplying of Your power today. Your purpose for America is that it be a powerful voice of the Gospel to the ends of the earth. We boldly declare that America will fully turn back to this purpose, and You will accomplish through her all You intended in this hour. A great harvest will be part of the synergistic fruit. We pray and declare these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.
Our decree:
We decree that the synergy of the ages is producing powerful breakthrough and wonderful fruit in America today.
Tomorrow we will be taking Communion together.
Portions of today’s devotional were taken from my book An Appeal to Heaven.(3)
Click on the link below to watch the full video.
James Strong, The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1990), ref. no. 5048.
Quoted in Ravenhill, Leonard, “Jonathan Edwards: Portrait of a Revival Preacher,” Dayspring, 1963.
Sheets, Dutch. An Appeal to Heaven. Dutch Sheets Ministries, 2015, pp. 1-9.