Articles by Paul Scanlon

The Battle for the Loins

The writer of Hebrews makes a fascinating statement when speaking about the encounter between Melchizedek and Abraham recorded in Genesis chapter fourteen. He explains that when Abraham tithed to Melchizedek, Levi and all the Levites did too. Obviously they weren't there in person but God regarded them as present and included in that action by virtue of being in Abraham's loins. He writes, 'One might even say that Levi, who collects the tenth, paid the tenth through Abraham, because when Melchizedek met Abraham, Levi was still in the body (or the Loins) of his ancestor' (Hebrews 7:9-10).

Even though Levi was still nearly 100 years down stream of Abraham, as far as God was concerned the actions of Abraham had a direct effect on his unborn offspring.

Generational Thinking

God thinks and works generationally, not only backward in time but forward as well. The generation of people alive today are both the product of their ancestors and the shapers of generations still to come. Sadly, in much of the western world, we have not lived with a generational awareness. As a result, we have neglected our transitional responsibility to live in a way that stops the continuity of anything that our forefathers should not have passed on to us being handed on to the children in our loins. This generation is perhaps the most selfish that has ever lived. We are consumed by the need to get all we can and live for the moment. Few have awakened to the sobering reality that the way I live my life today will seriously affect, for better or for worse, firstly those in my future family line and ultimately all who enter their circle of influence in the years ahead.

Too many within the charismatic church across the world have bought into an end time teaching that says 'we are the final generation' and by so doing have neglected their responsibly towards the next generation. The truth is that, whilst we would all like to be the final generation, we have no way of knowing if we are! So, we must always live in an awareness of the people 'in our loins' and work in a way that gives them a start in life that many of us never had.

The Battle for the Loins

This is a phrase I invented to describe what I believe is the primary battle in our towns and cities across the world today. The real battle, which sadly we have been largely ignorant of, is the battle for the control not only of the hearts and lives of those we see, but those we don't yet see - the people inside the people we are reaching. If Abraham's action of love and devotion towards God set a precedent for his unborn children's children, then why can't our actions of love, mercy, truth and justice set a precedent for the people in the 'loins' of the people we are reaching in our towns, cities and nations today?

Suppose that today, through our Red Light ministry here at Abundant Life, we reach a fourteen year old prostitute. She gives her life to Christ and changes her total direction in life. Then, by the time she is twenty, she marries a man of God and they have three children who grow up in God's House and are raised to love and serve him. We haven't just reached that prostitute today, we have reached the children in her loins and set in motion a potential generational chain reaction of God lovers, who never even knew that their mother or grandmother was once a prostitute on the streets of our inner city. If the prostitute Rahab could finish up in Christ's genealogical line, then why can't every present day Rahab be the start of the new line of faith in the earth?

Through our children's ministry we bus in hundreds of children every week from some of the most deprived inner city areas in our country. We have learned that it is not only these children we have a responsibility to reach but also the children inside those children. We want thousands of children across our city to be saying every day. 'No, I won't take those drugs for the sake of my unborn children.' We empower our teenagers to say with utter conviction if necessary, 'No, I will not have sex with you for my children and grandchildren's sake.' When a generation lives with this kind of responsibility towards the next, we will begin to win the 'battle for the loins' of our communities.

First Generation Believers

The 'battle for the loins' is one for the control of every first generation believer; all who have broken from their heathen family ancestry. The second and third generation believers who follow them will have their own distinctive battles but they should never have to re-fight the 'battle for the loins' again.

I was the first believer in my family line. The day I gave my life to Jesus Christ at the age of fifteen, was the day it became possible for my children to chart a new course in life. When I first left my secure sales career to go full time on the church staff over twenty years ago, my family gave me so much grief and trouble it was unbelievable. I was accused of committing career suicide, kissing my brains goodbye and selling out my family's financial future - amongst other things! But today we have four God-loving children, two have been on the church staff for years, and the great thing is that they were able to desire it from an early age. They and their friends think it is the coolest thing to be on the church staff! What they sometimes don't realise is that I made being on staff cool. I made it cool for a Scanlon to serve God full-time, but it cost me dearly to achieve it. Now they enjoy the benefits and blessings of a victory that I won, whilst they were still in our loins.

A New Breed

By breaking from a long line of unbelievers, I made a new breed of Scanlons possible. There has never been a Scanlon like me before. I am not a chip off the old block, I am a brand new block! I am not an extension of the Scanlon family tree, I am the start of a brand new tree. I am the new 'loins of origin' for a whole new breed of Scanlons. Like Abraham, I have left my father's family and heathen ancestry and started a new breed of people. Also like Abraham, I left for everyone. I did all the leaving any Scanlon will ever have to do from that old line of unbelief. No Scanlon before me has ever done what I have done or achieved what I have achieved or lived according to the values by which I live. I have won the 'battle for the loins.' It all changed at me, and my children and children's children all got a new start, a new option. A new possibility was made available to them the day I received Christ into my life.

I was the punch-bag for all future generations that will come through my new line of faith. All the rejection, abuse, misunderstanding, persecution and loneliness that came tumbling down on my shoulders as I tried to break free from a family line of unbelief and start a new generation of people, need never be experienced by my children. They will never experience being forbidden to go to church, be banned from listening to Christian music or be forbidden to have Christian friends around the house. They will never be teased for reading their Bible in the house, never embarrassed to pray or to speak about the things of God around the table. They will never be in trouble for giving a tithe of their pocket money, or for joining an open-air outreach mission in the town centre. The list of things I have battled is endless and it is a battle they should never have to fight.

The Primary Battle

The 'battle for the loins' is, I believe, the primary battle for our nation here in the UK. We are not reaching a massive second generation of believers who are just looking for a new church to attend, our country is 98% heathen. So the battle is still very much on for the control of the 'loins' of our nation and many other nations around the world like it. Our work is like that of Jesus; we have the awesome privilege of reaching broken and hurting lives who are about to become a new line of faith in the earth.

Imagine for a moment the difference Jesus made to the children and grandchildren of the demoniac Legion? And what about the future generations born to blind Bartimeus, the Samaritan women at the well and the ten Lepers? Then add to that the children of the once dead twelve year old daughter of Jairus and those of the recently resurrected only son of the widow of Nain. What you have are thousands of lives positively affected because of a life-changing encounter with Jesus.

Jesus was not just looking at the immediate impact of their miracle on that momentous day. He looked beyond, he saw the future generations inside their loins, he saw the emergence of God centred families with the potential to change the world forever! In the same way, we should never underestimate the impact our simple acts of kindness will have on the unborn generations within the loins of the unsaved we are reaching in our city.

Born Into Momentum

The first generation also face another unique challenge. Like Abraham, they don't know where they are going. God told him to 'Go to the land I will show you,' which turned out to be the land of Canaan (Genesis 12:1). But Abraham had no idea where the land was, how long it would take to get there or how to explain its whereabouts to the blood family he was leaving behind.

All those still to be born from his loins would never experience that; they would all be born into the momentum of the pilgrimage he had already begun. Only the first generation will have to suffer the embarrassment of leaving all that has been dear to them without being able to explain exactly where they are going. I clearly remember the frustration of not being able to explain to my family what my 'Canaan' would look like and how I would get there. The first generation have no maps, they simply have to follow the call of God whilst charting a new life course for their children to follow. This too is a major part of the battle for the loins.

I trust by now, that you are understanding both the nature of the conflict involved in a single life converting to Christ and the awesome potential impact of that decision on all those within that person's loins.

Reversing The Momentum

As churches, we must think and work in a generational way as we reach into our communities. While studying this concept, I have observed that within only a few generations the huge momentum of generational preference weakens the resolve of each new generation from being able to choose anything different.

This, of course, works both ways - good or bad. The patterns of crime, violence and immorality in our inner cities are the result of previous generations making bad choices, which in turn produce a bad value system for their offspring to be born into. The incredible momentum of sin becomes so great that nothing short of a divine intervention is powerful enough to break it.

We are that divine intervention and although we may feel like a person running into the fast lane of a motorway, lifting our hand and shouting halt! The reality is that for everyone who does halt, turn around and live against the tide of negative generational momentum, there are other people inside them who will be born going in that new direction. Within only a few generations there can be more travelling in God's direction than the devil's. The church becomes God's great contra-flow system in the world! Ultimately, as we reverse the curse of generational momentum, it will be the devil trying to shout halt! But we won't be swerving to miss him!

I could tell numerous stories of how we are reversing the flow of sin and decay in our city of Bradford. We are reaching thousands of young people in our schools as well as working into the other end of the generational spectrum by reaching out to tens of thousands within the adult generation. Our breakthroughs range from Tim, an ex-drug dealer and violent criminal who is now walking with God and blessing our city, down to Sam, a twelve-year-old juvenile delinquent who was about to be expelled from school and taken into care. Sam rode our buses, got saved and has recently won the Governors Award at his school for the most outstanding pupil of the year. We are taking the battle for the loins of our city to the streets - and we are winning!

Space doesn't permit me to speak about the distinctive struggles of the second and third generation but the full tape series, which is now available, does. Their battles for identity, ownership and ultimately permanence, must also be understood if we are to avoid reinventing the wheel by re-engaging in the battle for the loins with every new generation that is born.

I believe that this series of teaching has, without question, become one of the most significant I have ever done. It is time to seize the initiative and take back the authority in the battle for the loins of our world.