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Dream of a Generation Fully Alive (#5)

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When we started the World Race, it burned as a dream in my heart before we even launched it. I felt God asking me to offer this dream to a generation. I wrote about it in this blog 18 years ago. And I believe we’ve only tasted the first fruits. The world needs to see what it looks like to f…
By sethbarnes

praising god

When we started the World Race, it burned as a dream in my heart before we even launched it. I felt God asking me to offer this dream to a generation. I wrote about it in this blog 18 years ago. And I believe we’ve only tasted the first fruits. The world needs to see what it looks like to follow Christ with all your heart. I believe that this generation of young people wants to show us. The best is yet to come.

Dream of a Generation Fully Alive (#5), Sept. 2006

I feel a little crazy sharing this, but I’m consumed by this thing, so I have to throw it out there. You see, there is a dream I can’t shake. In my mind’s eye, I see a generation fully alive.

They live in community and work by teams. They are initiated into life in the Kingdom and know what it is to celebrate and minister on a daily basis.

They have been deeply discipled and have experienced the walk of intimacy with the Father and the flow of ministry thru their fingers to broken people in their community and around the world.

They have been broken by the world’s pain and have abandoned the idols and adolescent amusements that used to keep them numb and ineffective.

They have connected with widows and orphans in war-torn and AIDS-devastated places and understand what it costs to bring Jesus there. They have laid down their lives.

They have sold their earthly treasures for the pearl of great price, living simply and unencumbered so they can travel light. They are scattered across America and around the world. And in those places, they have awakened to their Kingdom identity and call.

They have learned how to incarnate Christ in places where Hell had established a stronghold. They are building churches and orphanages. They are transforming their communities.

They are a generation that will cross over the Jordan to the Promised Land. They have their eye on the prize and are running hard after it.

The decision to give a year to live and minister in a homeless way as Jesus did, healing the sick, binding up the brokenhearted, announcing the Kingdom, is a courageous one that few young people want to embrace. It seems crazy to leave family and friends and comfort zones behind. Joining the World Race, they get to do this.

But taking that step only makes you a candidate for a lot of pain early on in the process. I say that because, the cross came before Pentecost. The disciples had to die to a lot of dreams before they were able to embrace Jesus’ dream of the Kingdom. Our World Racers have had to die to a lot of stuff.

But they experience a soaring sense of possibility as we affirm their dreams. Dreams of coming alive, of counting to the broken and the abandoned. Several feel called to give themselves to a ministry to prostitutes. Several feel called to orphans. One feels called back to North Carolina to bring alive those who are still numb there.

And with the dreams, come tears of joy and a release of the Spirit. What makes this different than just another conference is that, now they get to go do it. This is not hit and run – they are charged to keep caring for those to whom they minister, and to place them in the hands of local Jesus-followers when they leave.

It’s the stuff of dreams. I’ve seen the first fruits of this dream out on my lawn this week. They are amazing. I believe tens of thousands will follow after them.

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