Walking Backward, Running Forward - A Prophetic Call to Generation X

by David Demian

From the first gathering in Whistler in 1995, our hearts’ longing has been to train and release the younger generation. The Lord has led us on a journey to raise up the covering and protection of true spiritual fathers and mothers in our nation, those who would walk with the younger generation and speak into their lives. This journey reached a climax in September 2001, when more than 110 leaders from across Canada entered a covenant to lay down their lives and ministries for one another to see God’s kingdom advanced in Canada.

Soon after the covenant, the Lord spoke to us that now, with a covering of fathers in place, He desires to release the children to walk with the fathers. When we asked Him how this should happen, His answer surprised us. “This next generation,” He said, “must learn to walk backward before they run forward.”

Covering the Fathers
Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father’s nakedness.

When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, he said, “Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers.”

He also said, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem. May God extend the territory of Japheth; may Japheth live in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be his slave.” (Gen. 9:20-27)

Noah’s sin led to nakedness and shame. And to a destiny-shaping test for his sons. When Ham chose to expose his father’s nakedness he unleashed a generational curse upon himself and his lineage. When Shem and Japheth made the effort to walk backward to cover Noah, their act of humility and love brought blessing and enlarged inheritances.

Breaking the Curse
“See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.” (Mal. 4:5-6)

Since Ham the root sin of uncovering the fathers has turned the hearts of the generations against one another. And held the destinies of people and nations under a curse.

But as the time draws near for the “restoration of all things,” we believe the calling of the next generation, Gen X, is to reclaim the God-ordained relationship between the fathers and the children that His favour may rest on our land in an unprecedented measure. This is the hour of visitation for Gen X. Now is the time for them to redeem their destiny.

The Destiny of Gen X
The enemy has ruthlessly sought to steal, kill and destroy the destiny of Gen X by using abortion and abuse, both natural and spiritual. They have been a forgotten and fatherless generation.

But God has remembered Gen X and has placed His seal upon them. Unmistakably. Irrevocably.

They are a generation gifted with a passion for intimate relationship. And when they are released, they will walk with wholehearted abandonment to His will and His ways.

Gen X has come into the kingdom for such a time as this, to uproot an ancient foundation of the enemy in the church. Young visionaries, the “sons”, struggle to communicate with the older established ministries, the “fathers”. Sensing they are misunderstood, the sons rebel and dishonour the fathers. The fathers, feeling rejected and wounded, abandon and oppose them. The sons, unprotected and uncovered, are attacked and wounded by the enemy.

But in Canada, true fathers and mothers are being set in place, those who long to see the next generation surpass them in anointing, in authority, in every way. Under this covering and by God’s grace, Gen X will reverse the curse in Canada and build a new foundation. Gen X will embrace the call to walk backward before running forward. God will grant them a spirit of humility and brokenness to walk in accountability with the fathers. The fathers will release a blessing over them. And Gen X will run like a fire in a dry land: unrelenting and unquenchable.

It will be the enemy’s worst nightmare.

Bridging the Gap<br> I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one.
I write to you, dear children, because you have known the Father. (1 John 2:13)

As the apostle John wrote to the early church, we believe the Lord is restoring the generations to walk together with Him. So the position of Gen X becomes pivotal. They are a link, a bridge across three generations. They are called as sons to the fathers and as fathers to the children. And we believe the Lord is about to release a dual anointing upon them to walk in both these callings with favour, wisdom and grace.

Releasing the Sons
Now is the time, through mutual humility and self-sacrifice, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers.

Now is the time to establish a plumb line in the heavenlies of right relationship between the generations that will impact Canada and the nations of the world.

This summer the Lord is calling the church of Canada to Charlottetown as a next step in our journey toward Canada’s destiny. There God desires to release the sons and daughters to walk with the fathers.

Let us come, old and young, in obedience to fulfill the desires of His heart.