Saving Family

You AND your family will be saved

There’s something that has been laid on my heart recently concerning the burden of a man’s family. Can I believe God for my whole household to be saved when not all members are saved? Can my household believe together in agreement about the Word of Jesus Christ? Can we all be filled with the Holy Ghost and with power together, in one accord, to accomplish the works of the Great Commission?

As I thought on this, the Lord led me to what’s called the “Precedent Setting Passage.” Or basically it’s the first time something is mentioned in the Bible that sets the precedent for every other time it is mentioned in the scriptures.

There are two precedent setting events in the Bible in relation to entire families believing together; one Old Testament, one New Testament. Let’s look first at the Old Testament reference – one of my favorite books in the Bible, Genesis.

Short version; God says He’s going to bring a flood on the earth, and picks Noah out of a world that had only wicked thoughts continually (Genesis 6:5). So we read the faith-building statement in Genesis 6:18:

“But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee.”

I could camp on how God said “You will come into the ark,” and how that signifies God was waiting for them inside the ark, but that’s for another time. For this study, we need to look at Genesis 7:1,4-7,10:

“And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.
For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.
And Noah did according unto all that the LORD commanded him.
And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.
And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.
And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.”

I put some emphasis in there to show a couple things. We know that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17), so we can conclude that Noah had faith and believed God (Hebrews 11:7).

But what of his family? It seems from this passage that they simply followed what Noah did without question. But let’s put ourselves in their shoes.
His wife probably said something like, “Really, Noah? It’s going to ‘rain’ as you call it? What’s rain? What’s a flood? Nothing like that’s ever happened before! And we’ve been in this boat for seven days without anything happening!”
After all, these people were humans just like us (except they lived A LOT longer than we do). But Noah believed God. So what I see happening here is that Noah’s belief was so strong and so led by the Spirit of God that his whole family caught on to it, and God saved all of them. Therefore, one man’s belief brought his whole household into salvation! Amen!

Let’s look now at the New Testament and see what we find as the precedent-setting event. In John’s Gospel the 4th chapter, Jesus comes back to Cana of Galilee and is met by a nobleman. This man’s son was sick in his house at Capernaum. Now while writing this study, I discovered something awesome: Cana of Galilee is about 10 miles from Capernaum, which if you walk that distance by foot, it’ll take you a while to go that far! This man had a strong faith in Jesus, and he walked 10 miles or more just to receive a word from the Man he had only heard about!

Anyway, this man tells Jesus of his sick son, and asks Jesus to come and heal him. Jesus responds by saying “Go your way, your son lives.” What is even more awesome is the man’s recorded response, this is in John 4:50 – “And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way.”

Are you seeing the pattern I’m seeing? A Word from God is given, the people believe the Word given to them, and it produces results. But look at verses 51-53:

“And as he was now going down, his servants met him, and told him, saying, Thy son liveth.
Then enquired he of them the hour when he began to amend. And they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.
So the father knew that it was at the same hour, in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed, and his whole house.”

Again we see this man’s belief was so strong that it influenced his entire household! The miracle of his son being healed was because of his belief in Jesus’ word, then that healing brought his family into belief in Jesus and His words! Are you seeing this?

Did you receive a word from God about your family? Are there members of your family that aren’t saved? Be hopeful! Look to God and He will give you comfort and peace about your family members!

Now this isn’t something to base a doctrine on, but it certainly is encouraging! From what I know about my dearly beloved Father, He LOVES when His children believe Him and have faith in His Word, because when we do, He ALWAYS moves on our behalf! And it’s not because He does what we tell Him to – far from it! He does what HE SAID He would do! Are you catching this?!

Faith in God’s Word works, every time. Not only does it work, but faith in God is contagious! We’ve seen in the Bible the two precedent-setting events that I believe can still apply to us today. If God gives you a word concerning anything, when you believe it with all your heart, your family WILL see your faith working and grow closer together as they are brought into that faith with you!

I love you all, and am believing God with you for mountains to be moved in your family!

Your brother in the Way,
-Brad