The WIGTake for Spiritual Generations
All 12 Ingredients for Spiritual Generations and Podcasts
By Pheaney (Peter) Lindell and Chuck & Deb Wood
We spend our lives reminding those we disciple of the truth. But what is the bedrock of that truth? Jesus did not attempt His ministry on a hunch; He built it on the absolute confidence that the Father would keep His Word.
Within the pages of Scripture, there are over seven thousand promises spoken by God. While they vary between blessings and warnings, conditional and unconditional, they are all profound treasures waiting to be uncovered. As His children, digging into these promises not only brings immense encouragement to our own lives, but it equips us to deeply encourage the people we are discipling. We’ve discovered over the years that when God’s promises become the bedrock of your ministry, they produce the lasting endurance and joyful zeal needed to multiply spiritual generations.
The Jesus Model
This trust was the fuel for His boldest invitations. When He told Peter and Andrew, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19), He wasn’t just giving a command; He was making a promise. He trusted that if they provided the obedience (“Follow Me”), the Father would provide the transformation (“I will make you”). He knew that the burden of changing hearts rested on God, not on human effort.
Even at the end, as He commissioned the disciples for a task that seemed impossible—reaching all nations—He sandwiched the command between two realities: His authority and His presence. “All authority has been given to Me… and lo, I am with you always” (Matthew 28:18-20). He trusted that the Father had given Him all authority and it was sufficient to back the mission.
The Scriptural Model
Paul mirrored this absolute confidence in the divine guarantee. He did not view the promises of God as hopeful possibilities, but as current realities. Writing to the Corinthians, he declared, “For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us” (2 Corinthians 1:20).
Paul understood that in Christ, God’s answer to every promise He ever made is a resounding “Yes.” This gave Paul the audacity to claim that the Galatian believers were not merely converts, but “children of promise” (Galatians 4:28). Just as Isaac was born not by natural power but by divine promise, spiritual generations are born by God keeping His word. We do not birth spiritual children by our own effort alone, but by relying on the Promise-Maker.
Stories
The pursuit of generational discipleship is rarely a sprint; it’s a marathon through varying terrain. It requires a relentless blend of patience, hard work, and an unwavering trust in God’s timing. Deb and I have walked through many “deserts” in our journey—seasons where the ground felt cracked and the fruit seemed non-existent.
A few years ago, we felt a distinct stirring. It wasn’t an audible voice, but through the quiet rhythm of Scripture and prayer, the message was clear: start over. God led us to begin a church right in our living room with a simple promise: “I will fill this room, it will multiply, and you will see My hand.”
We set a date, arranged the furniture, and began to pray. Then, we waited. For two long years, our Tuesday night gathering consisted of exactly five participants: me, Deb, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Twenty-four months is a long time to stare at empty chairs. However, we didn’t panic or throw in the towel. Having leaned on God’s promises since our earliest days in ministry, we knew that a “dry season” didn’t mean a “dead season.” We kept showing up. We kept trusting.
Sure enough, the tide turned. Our living room didn’t just fill; it overflowed. That small circle multiplied into several groups of disciples making disciples, eventually sparking two or three new churches and even sending a missionary to Egypt.
Recently, coming off a sabbatical, we found ourselves leaning into the promise of Leviticus 26:9: “I will turn toward you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will confirm My covenant with you.” Just one month after that season of rest, we are seeing significant fruit. It’s a powerful reminder that when we rely on His covenant rather than our own speed, the multiplication is inevitable.
We need to remember God works on a much different timescale than we do. We get antsy after a few months, but God waited 20 years to give Abram his follow-up instructions.
Suggestions
- Promise Journal: Encourage your disciples to keep a journal of specific promises from Scripture that they are standing on for their life and ministry.
- Rehearse the Wins: Regularly share stories of how God has come through in the past. “Remember when we prayed for X, and God did Y?” This builds faith for the current battle.
- The Faith Step: Challenge your disciples to do something that is doomed to fail unless God shows up (e.g., sharing the Gospel with a stranger). Help them exercise the “trust muscle.”
Application for Disciple Makers
For us, the WIGTake is moving from “hoping” God shows up to “trusting” He already has. We often hesitate to lead because we look at our own inadequacy. But spiritual reproduction isn’t based on your ability; it’s based on His promise. When you disciple someone, you are standing on the promise that He is the one who makes fishers of men. You are trusting that His authority is real and His presence is constant. You aren’t just crossing your fingers; you are saying “Amen” to God’s “Yes.”
Next Week: Trusting the promises is the “why” that allows us to exhibit the “how” of the long-term marathon. Next week, we conclude with the grit required to finish: Ingredient #12: Perseverance.
All 12 Ingredients for Spiritual Generations and Podcasts
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