Last night I sat in on a youth meeting, which was enlightening for me personally, especially as the Lord revealed something to me this morning about this generation of young people. As I was praying about these young people this morning the Lord showed me that "this generation of youth are the perfect timber for building God's house because they are raw timber. They don't have nails and screws that must be removed." This generation is a generation of young people who have been born and raised in captivity, and just as the young Israelites born in Babylon had never heard or read the scriptures, these young people of today are almost completely ignorant of the scriptures. The scripture that they do know is not what they get from personal study, but like those born in exile, they get their diet of God's word filtered through the preaching and teaching of a religion of captivity that has drifted far from that which God had originally ordained. However, because very few young people are interested in religion, this generation of youth (even those who have grown up in church) have remained basically uninfected by today's religion and by empty doctrine.
The lack of interest in spiritual things that so frustrates and troubles many of today's youth leaders is actually a blessing in disguise. God has kept this generation of young people immune to dead powerless empty religion. Like untouched timber, these young people can be harvested, cut, shaped, and finished as beautiful beams and pillars in God's house without the tedious job of removing nails and screws.
My brother-in-law helps dismantle century old barns and then resaws the slow growth long leaf pine beams into dimension lumber to be used in buildings and in fine furniture. However, before the beams can be cut, all of the nails and screws, which forever leave their mark in the finished lumber, must be removed to keep from damaging the saw blade. However, this is a step that wouldn't be needed if they were using virgin timber.
Likewise, this generation of young living trees, are untainted and undamaged by the religion of captivity, for they have for the most part remained untouched by it. They have no nails to be removed, nor have they been fashioned into grotesque images of dead religion or sealed over with layer upon layer of paint which would have to be stripped in order for the natural beauty and fragrance of the wood to come forth. When the time is right, these beautiful but rough trees will be harvested and quickly fashioned into beautiful beams and pillars in God's temple.
The young people that I observed last night, except for three or four that will have to have a few nails pulled, are either unharvested or are completely rough timber immune to the religion of their parents. Their parents are a generation who, like their children, were born in captivity, but unlike their children, have been damaged and grotesquely shaped and sealed over by the religion of captivity.
The fact that these youth seem immune to the religion of their parents has brought much frustration to parents and youth workers who have been shaped by the religion of captivity in Babylon. These parents and youth workers see this immunity, this lack of interest in spiritual things, as something evil and dangerous, not knowing that God is protecting this generation from the evil and dangerous religion of their parents. God is preserving, as in a wilderness preserve, His young Cedar trees that He will harvest, fashion, and use to adorn His beautiful house.
Just as the children of Israel were in captivity in Babylon for seventy years, the church in America has been in captivity for as long. There is an older generation that saw the glory of the former house, but went into exile many years ago. This older generation, like their Jewish counterparts raised their children in captivity, teaching them a religion that really doesn't work in captivity. After all, the temple was still in Jerusalem, and they were in exile in Babylon. They lived a hybrid religion that had rapidly declined since leaving the Promised Land and the house of God for exile in a foreign land.
Nearly all of the law was ignored and then forgotten, since it was impossible to keep the law in a foreign land. However, God is bringing a remnant out of captivity and is rebuilding His house that is broken down and will rebuild the walls that are destroyed and the gates that have been burned. This generation of youth will be a very important part of the remnant that is coming out of exile.
Because this generation has been so uninfected by dead religion, they will be greatly impacted when they see and experience the word of God lived out in God's remnant. Like those who heard Ezra read the law and wept because they realized for the first time that they had not kept the law (Neh. 8:9), these young people will see the scriptures for the very first time, for they, unlike their religious parents, will learn the scripture by experiencing the God of the scriptures.
The move of God in the early part of this century was believed by many to be the latter house that would prove to be more glorious than the former. However, in the late 1920's, Frank Bartleman had the vision to call it the "former house". Those who knew the glory of the former house may weep when they see the foundation of this latter house laid. However, God is going to take a generation of pierced and painted, shaved and spiked young people (rough timber) and adorn His beautiful temple: the latter house that He is building in this hour that will indeed be more glorious than the former.