Heritage

Philip Rice, my spiritual/prophetic father, is going to marry Becky Freeman tomorrow night. After just two and a half months of constant planning and preparing and arranging and writing and on and on... It's really going to happen. And that is just a crazy thing to begin wrapping my mind around.

Tonight we held a bachelor party for Phil at my house. Mitch Freeman (Becky's father), his sons, Sid Rice (Philip's Dad), his sons, Willis Rice (Philip's uncle), the guys of the Neighborhood (Matt, Eric, and myself), Shane Mock (Philip's spiritual father), Brett (my spiritual brother) were all in one room for a couple hours. The weight was intense.

We sat in a circle, with Phil in a nice leather chair, and each man told Philip what we thought about him and how he had changed our lives. 

The part that really messed with me wasn't the cute stories. It wasn't even the prayer, although it was one of the most important prayers I've ever witnessed. It was when Philip's father talked about the heritage of the Rice family.

Phil's dad had told Phil that he reminded him of his father, Phil's grandfather a few months ago while Phil was preparing to propose to Becky. I remember when that was said, because Phil and I talked a long time about the significance of that statement. But seeing his dad actually in front of me tell Phil the same thing I had only heard second hand was powerful. Then, when Shane followed up with a picture of the spiritual heritage of his relationship to Phil, I was definitely blown away. Parts of my heart started resonating that I didn't know existed. 

It clicked that Brett and I are spiritual brothers in a lineage of incredible men. The fact that Phil started calling the two of us his prophetic sons a few years ago set a part of my heart into place, and I could almost physically feel the connection being made. 

As we prayed, Shane had his hand on Philip's heart, and Brett and I were overlapping our hands over his belly area. I will NEVER forget this picture. It's an image of Shane depositing things into Phil, Phil stewarding them, and channelling them into Brett and I. And behind Philip were standing the two biological fathers (his father and his uncle) that passed down a ministry of passion and faithfulness from the very beginning of Philip's life, anointing him in a very special way as the first born among his brothers.

Well, there you go. Hopefully you're getting a picture of intense love and lineage that surpasses any talent, skill, or trade. Hopefully you're being inspired to begin pouring into someone under you and multiplying your life of intimacy with Jesus into them. I know I'm inspired to do just that.