House On The Rock

• If you are a member of a local church, the FIRST spiritual father is the Pastor in Charge of your church.
• If you are in Charge of your church, your spiritual father is the one who prepared you for ministry and released you to fulfil your ministry (that is how it is supposed to be until 21^st century) 

This article is written to help those who are in serious danger of loosing their assignments through error of spiritual fatherhood and are being abused by immature, selfish, self oriented fathers.

I pray that you will gain understanding.

“I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved children, I warn you. For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. Therefore I urge you to imitate me.” 1 Corinthians 4:14-16.

I believe that one of the areas of error that has crept into the Church is the area of spiritual fatherhood.

It has been greatly misunderstood and abused it is unbelievable!

As we leave in a fatherless generation and immature fathers raising children, we are experiencing the same in the Church.

Mentoring is not Fatherhood.

To be an instructor does not make you a Spiritual Father to someone and you yourself who submit to others for fathering must know the difference. If you do not know the difference, it is your fault if you are seriously abused.

I derive my natural DNA from my natural father.

He provided basic necessities of life, spent valuable time with me and share valuable lessons of life with me as he was thought and experienced (even though some of these lessons I heard and learnt in his old age but he still pass it on to me of which I am eternally grateful)

Some of us have joined ourselves with spiritual fathers whom we have no spiritual DNA with and are now been treated as bastards because each time sons approach their fathers, they are openly received but bastards are treated with contempt and shame because of the way you gave birth to such a child. Your father does not want people to know that you are his child! Some spiritual fathers are treating their sons with such mentality because of the way they acquired the sons/daughters in ministry.

Spiritual fatherhood is more than tithes and offerings.

The reason why some are into fatherhood is because of the financial gain derived from such sons. They are only interested in the percentage of the income that comes through their sons finances to leave their canal lifestyle whether the child live or die is irrelevant. I believe that Fathers that are true fathers should be abundantly blessed but also as Abraham gave gifts to the sons of Keturah and all the children of his concubines but gave ALL that he had to Isaac so also should be the spiritual principle every spiritual fathers should operate upon here in 21^st century! The issue of fatherhood had never been so abused until now. How can you call someone your father who hardly prays with you but is only interested in your money?

How can you call someone your father who never introduce you to spiritual discipline of his life for you to learn from?

How can you call someone your father who never allowed you to know how they failed in their venture in serving Christ? Parenting is not only about success it is about success and failure also. Spiritual parents are to let their sons/daughters know their challenges which the good Lord through His grace helped them overcome. After all not all things that glitters is gold!

These were the blessings passed down by true fathers of old to their children in faith. They made them to know what will happen after their departure so that their sons can be aware of it and excel. They warned their sons, challenged them, prayed with them, carried them in their bossom, discipline them if necessary.

Fatherhood is really more than getting it is also about giving! Giving of time and money! At this point, I celebrate true spiritual fathers who gave their TIME and also money back into the lives of the sons/daughters. Such deserve double honour!

Ask yourself when was the last time your father ever spent quality time with you and your spiritual siblings? When in crisis, is he ever there? If you call him now will he respond or it is answering machine that will respond to you and if he does not respond, is there any structure in place to make you know you are in his network?

I have seen fathers who will go to any length to see their spiritual sons/daughters become who God called them to be even in difficult condition risking their own lives. Not to financially bless such fathers is a sin.

I know of fathers who love their sons/daughters by correcting them when they miss it and not just talk behind their back to others because of their own insecurity or turn political through divide and rule system. Not to honour such also is a sin.

If you have a spiritual father, what made you call him your father?

Some of us have gone for fathers because they have great influence and power in the society.

Some of us have gone for fathers who are known in the world.

Some of us have gone for fathers to use their connections so we will not mind the wickedness done through them and by them.

To escape abuse from spiritual fatherhood, here are some wisdom nuggets:

• Prayerfully approach the matter with eternity in mind.

For you to call a person your father without prayerfully considering the effect is like asking for someone to come in freely to rape you. This might sound too harsh but it is so.

It is God who determined who our natural father will be. We did not have a choice in the matter. So also it is divinely relevant for you to not rush to choose by the dictate of your flesh until you pray through.

Your father can make you or destroy you.

You must approach the subject with heaven in mind. If you have a father who is not heavenly minded, there is the tendency that you might miss it also. Remember, like father like son! You become after your father unless you choose to be different. 2 Timothy 4:6-8. A father with such testimony is worth honouring.

• Know who you are: 1 Peter 2:4-5

If you do not know your worth, you will become a victim of abuse from anyone.

Always remember that it took God your Heavenly Father the death and Blood of His Son our Lord and Saviour to Redeem you and I. You are valuable and significant to Him and should be to any spiritual father too.

Never sell yourself so cheap. You are Blood bought saint of God chosen, elected, adopted into the family of the beloved. If your spiritual father does not accept you and treat you as such. Kindly relocate prayerfully but without strife.

• Know what you are chosen and sent to do on earth. Acts 9:15-16.

If you do not know what you are chosen for, you will walk in the vision of others miss your own as an Overseer too.

• Do not submit to fatherhood that is loveless. 1 Peter 1:22

Agape love is birthed by the Spirit of God and should flow from every father to their children. Love make you go after your children regardless of their fault. The prodigal son’s father looked out from the day his son left the house and celebrated him when he returned. Love sought after.

Love makes you give. Some fathers are receivers and not givers. Run from such. Also some children are receivers and not givers!

Instructors are not necessarily fathers

Some of us have instructors. Instructors are teachers and they deserve every celebration if they are instructors indeed. Galatians 6:6 teaches us to share all good things with him who teaches us the word.

You can have as many instructors based on what you set out to accomplish on earth but fathers are special.

The issue of fatherhood is now becoming a serious matter that cannot be ignored. In some culture, it is treated like a cultural thing whereby a spiritual father see himself as someone that can never approached easily. So everyone must shake when he is around. Yes we must give honour to whom it is due But please do not give the honour due to Heavenly God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ to any man. Some of us are so tied to spiritual father more than our relationship with the Redeemer of our souls.

Some of us will rather listen to spiritual father who is alienated from God than to listen to God and obey Him.

If you are so blessed by spiritual fathers, treasure them. Honour them and greatly appreciate them. Remember we have not many fathers.

If you are in an abusive fatherhood relationship, believe God after digesting this article to pray and reconsider.

Book recommended: “You have not many fathers by Dr Mark Hanby with Craig Lindsay Ervin http://www.reapernet.com  ISBN 1-56043-166-0

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are living at a time which I believe is a reminder of what humanity without Christ can become.

When God made us, He made us in His image and likeness and with the ability to choose.

The choice to do good or evil is powerful.

The choice to love against hatred is awesome.

The ability to make the difference in the world is wonderful and what would life be without this ability? We as human beings, would have become what is called Zombies!

In a man is the ability to wake up one morning and decide to make a difference in your generation. As you read this article, what would your choice be?

Should your life be required from you now what would you tell your maker you have really accomplished on earth apart from the degrees that you have to your name, the number of properties you bought “on loans from the bank” the number of cars you parked in your garage, the clothes in your wardrobes etc…..

As Christians, how many Mephibosheth eats on your table? 2 Samuel 9. How can you be a follower of Jesus Christ and not be compassionate towards the weak and destitute. How can you be a disciple of Jesus Christ and not be a Covenant keeper?

Ask yourself also as a follower of Jesus Christ, when you are gone from this earth, who will truly and genuinely miss you and why? If you are missed because of the material things you provided for others, as important as it is, you have missed it. Other religious folks provide such care also even more on many occasions.

But if you are taken and you are remembered for both the material and impartation of faith in Christ that you left as a mark in people’s lives, I believe you will be greatly missed and your memory will be eternally printed in the heart and mind of folks.

Right now what will your choice be?

Also in a man’s loin lies the genes to produce Presidents, Kings, Member of Parliament, Political giants, Scientists, Nobel Prize winner etc……….

You and I are great people expected to produce great things because the God who made us is Greater than what people say!

In the book of Prophet Ezekiel 22:30-31 it is written “So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land that I should not destroy it but I found no one so I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; and I have recompensed their deeds on their own heads” says the Lord.

The reason I believe why The God whose Heaven is His throne and the Earth is His footstool will not find one among His people was because everyone chooses not to be INTERESTED in what went on in their days and time. The language was “it is not my business I have my own life to live”

Beloved, it is not by accident that you are reading this article.

That scripture is so relevant today than ever. Our God through His Holy Spirit is still looking for a man or woman because the word a man is not about male or female. It is about an individual regardless of you gender. He is still looking for you in our generation and in your country to stand before Him in the integrity of your heart to plead for mercy so that God’s judgement will not be poured on your people while you are still around them. If it does happen through your indifferent attitude, you will experience the ripple effect of it.

In our own country Britain, we are faced with unprecedented political mess that only GOD can deliver us from!

We have pointed at other nations and laugh at them for their greed and foolishness of leadership that we forget in HUMAN BEIGN is the same tendency to fall into the same PIT if you are not discipline and focus on your purpose of being in government or position of authority.

King David realised this after falling into the lap of Bathsheba! While he was running from Saul and his enemies, he had no time for women and especially his loyal soldier’s wife. The moment he became King (power) and he was no longer at war when kings go to fight, his flesh took advantage of him. We still read of it till today and tomorrow but may we never forget that he accepted his sin, confessed and repented of adultery and murder, made his peace with God and moved on.

As shameful as we feel right now in our country may we believers especially never forget this same principle and stop being so judgemental because until you get to power and you stay their without compromise all your life them you can cast the first stone.

The fact that you even use you employer’s phone with permission disqualify you! The pen in your bag from work etc….

To come back to the point, you are the man God is looking for to stand in the gap right now in prayer for your people, family, church, marriage (please don’t give up now), your nation! Do not wait for others to join you, they can only join you when they hear and see the same thing you saw and heard!

Choose to obey that voice that is calling you to be Nehemiah and Esther of your time.

Stop looking at yourself like Gideon with insignificant mentality. To God you are significant. Stop seeing yourself as a just a woman. I am a woman like yourself.

Maybe your excuse is lack of education. As good as education is, what use is it without revelation? When you have revelation of your purpose and you respond, education will follow.

Make that choice for good now. James 4:17 declares that whosoever knows the good to do and will not do it, it is sin. Choose good and do it from now.

“There was a man sent from God, whose name was John” John 1:6

q  You are a man:

May I remind all believers in Christ and especially those of us who have entered into purpose of existence on earth by serving His Kingdom through our ministry gift that you are a man. Yes I know that you are a spirit that has a soul but for earthly realm you have a body that carries you about.

You are a man with flesh and blood. You have human faculties, and intellect. You are endowed with certain features that made you and I different from other creatures created by God and I am so glad that He made us fearfully and wonderfully too.

In our humanity, we are limited in scope and shape. Stop quoting Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” Beloved you can only do what God ordained for you to do through Christ who infuses His strength into you. You must know that there is a boundary set for you and should you and I go beyond the boundaries, we end up in mess, which is usually the case.

We confuse the purpose of anointing and we never wait for Him so we launch out believing that He will back every effort we made in our humanity.

It is never so!

Beloved we are only as effective for Jesus Christ as often as we DIE to our flesh. Apostle Paul understood this by saying that “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me” Galatians 2:20.

The mess we are in today as Christians is not because of our Spirituality but the work of our flesh. We spiritualised every matter and we forget there is a place for five senses to manifest as much as brain to function. Yes I know that you are not to be ruled by your senses and I am not implying such but to remind you that you are a man in need of His grace and His anointing for daily victory.

It is not the divine aspect of our nature that brings shame since that has been reborn by the incorruptible seed of the Living God. It is the workings of our unbroken senses, our mind and the use of our brain that leads us into big mess.

When we are so arrogant to believe that because we are Spiritual we can do anything even violate God’s word because of our human perspective then we are in trouble. Samson is our example. Whatever his eyes desire in a woman he got it till he did not know that the anointing had departed from him. Wondering eyes or lookery as I often call it is a sin! What you see with your physical eyes outside the purpose of God and His intention leads to serious sin so remember you are a man that cannot function victoriously outside the grace of God and stick to the Holy Spirit to help you always.

Remember! You are not all that!  Stop believing the publicity report of your ministry and the entire accolade rendered to you each time your name is mentioned. Yes the stadium is filled each time you minister, yes the prophecy came through, yes preaching is straight to the point, yes you are the latest in the hall of preacher’s Hollywood list. Yes you are the latest sought after speaker in every conference. You are still a man in need of Him DAILY. You are not different from the Priesthood of believers in Jesus Christ. It is His grace on you that makes the difference.

q  You are sent:

As a man, remember you were sent. You are never the Boss. You are still the   messenger of Jesus Christ.

Let us all remember how we began the journey through His Cross and how we through His grace received our ministries or assignments and run the race with endurance. Hebrew 12:1

If I send my messenger any errand, it is imperative for him or her to discharge the errand the way given. Even Moses was told to build according to pattern. (Hebrew 8:5) Do you even know you were sent or you just assume you began the journey yourself? Or maybe you were not even sent? You are a self-oriented messenger like the seven sons of Sceva a Jewish chief priest in Ephesus Acts 19:14-15.  For us that are sent remember the pattern given by The Boss and let us not forget to build according to pattern. Stop copying other people’s ministry. Everyone wants to build mega churches even if they are not sent to do it. Everyone of us now wants to have a travelling ministry even when we have no strong local base to sustain our travelling ministry, everyone wants to go on Television even if He did not send them to do that but to support those He sent to do it, everyone want to do conference even if He did not send them to do it. Remember, The Boss is financially responsible for what He sent us to do. In His faithfulness the finance will cover His bills, your family will not suffer unnecessary attacks. You will not need to fast forty days repeatedly to keep the “anointing” going and people coming all because you need the finance. When you fast it will be for genuine purpose and be careful how to take God’s people through certain spiritual warfare as it exposes the weak ones to unnecessary attacks.

Know what you are sent to do and be faithful after all, it is expected of stewards to be faithful and know that one day you will give account to the One who sent you. What will you account for?

q  He was sent from God:

The headquarters of our Ministry on earth is not on earth but in Heaven. Heaven is the throne of our God and earth is His footstool therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him for we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Knowing therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men but we are well known to God and also I trust are well known in your consciences.

You came from God and you will go back to God to give account.

I encourage you my reader if you are a Minister of the gospel in the office of Jesus Christ according to Ephesians 4:11 or you are in the general priesthood of believers to be mindful of the time we are living in to continue to seek out our salvation with fear and trembling. The day of our salvation draw nearer than when we first believe.