When I was growing up in a small town in Northern Michigan in the 1960's, WWII and the Korean War were still fresh enough in the national consciousness that young boys who had fathers who were combatants in those conflicts were refighting those wars in school yards and backyards throughout America. I was one of those boys. My younger brother was, at times, my fellow warrior, or my representative adversary, all rolled into one. We had a stand of trees across the road from our family home that often became a major battlefield of WWII in all seasons of the year. Because I was the older brother by more than two years, I always chose to be a US soldier, whether it be Army or Marines, and, depending on my response to my brother's appeals, he became my fellow US soldier against an unseen enemy, or one of the enemy soldiers in the flesh.
On a particular beautiful day when my brother wasn't around. I was on a military operation in my neighborhood forest for the glory of my country. I was the key hope for victory against the overwhelming forces of a foreign army determined to control the world. My firm resolve was to guard the sovereign land of an allying country and retake territory presently held by invading forces. During the process of battling my unseen enemy, I decided to execute a new strategy to make my personal warring more effective. So I elected to climb a tree and hang upside down from a sturdy limb to surprise my adversary from above, where, I assumed, he would be defeated by the brilliance of my new attack scheme. Unfortunately, I failed to foresee the potential pitfalls of clinging precariously to my horizontal perch.
My hands began to slip to the ends of my fingers. My feet feet began to lose any grip they had previously achieved. Despite my valiant efforts to stay latched onto the safety of my limb and before I could develop and test an alternative solution, I fell ten feet below to the place where the flat of my back engaged the forest floor. The immediate sensation I felt was one of disorientation. The second
was a panicking reaction to not being able to take a breath. All the air within me had been knocked out of my traumatized lungs. All soldiering was suspended. All battling ceased. I lay there in complete weakness before my advancing adversaries because of my self-inflicted, debilitating wound.
I became an easy target for far too long that day. There I was straining to call on God for His Omnipotent helping hand I had heard about, even though it was impossible to truly cry out because of my immediate injury. He heard my silent scream anyway. I was a disabled warrior in desperate need of help beyond myself and He caused my breath to return. Recovery had come from an extremely vulnerable position, but I needed the righteous right arm of the Powerful One to rescue me. It was a defenseless child in need of the safety found in his Father, not a strong warrior who was self-sufficient.
This reminds me so much of what happens when there is a treasured teaching of Holy Spirit that would beautifully enhance our individual lives and the life of the church. It is an empowering revelation that we need to be warring against any attempt of our enemy to steal from us. Sometimes we come up with our own strategy on how to protect such a valuable revelation. Or worse yet, there are only a few warriors battling to protect precious revelation territory that others in the army of God fail to value. Either way, we all may need a rescue from a willing deliverer to guard the revelation, restore it to our lives, and release abundant life to the church worldwide.
The revelation of Father's heart and fathering is like that. Those that have benefited from this amazing revelation will battle against the enemy's attempts to steal this empowering teaching from their lives and the body of Christ. They will sacrifice their own comfort to comfort others with this life-changing message because it is Kingdom territory worth protecting.
On the other hand, there are those who feel they see inherent dangers in this powerful teaching and, basically, call it error, dangerous, or heresy. Something so good is portrayed as something not worth guarding, or preserving. Something so sublime is found to be lacking because human frailty has caused an aberration of this wonderful truth, when it is corrupted by poor human examples. Insecure leaders who overlord, control, and abuse their flocks have caused many destructive consequences in the lives of the precious people that trusted these leaders. Counterfeit fathers who have taken advantage of sons and daughters disqualify themselves from modeling Father's love, or to be considered true fathers. This is an error (often intentional) in the execution of the revelation of fathering. However, the revelation itself isn't disqualified, only the poor examples who fail to exemplify the true Father's heart.
Additionally, there are those who say they believe fully in fathering, but when they see that it means repenting to receive healing of unforgiveness, hurt, pain, bitterness, offense, accusation, slander, libel, gossip, judgment, division, etc., they balk at allowing the revelation to bring the amazing transformation that God intends. They often blame innocent teachers of the Father's love, or those who model fathering, by accusing them of self-serving control. What at first is joyfully embraced is later persecuted because it requires a willingness to die to the flesh. The flesh rarely dies easily. It might flop around like a fleshly caught fish on a dock before it finally succumbs to death. The flesh must die for us to volunteer to be fathered because our independence and codependence must be humbled in order to be raised up faithful through interdependence.
Fathering is a movement within the body of Christ that has been restored in these latter days by the Holy Spirit to activate many beneficial Kingdom qualities. It has been gifted to the children from the Father's heart to lavish favor upon His sons and daughters for their fullest edification and encouragement.
For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. I Corinthians 4:15, 16
On a particular beautiful day when my brother wasn't around. I was on a military operation in my neighborhood forest for the glory of my country. I was the key hope for victory against the overwhelming forces of a foreign army determined to control the world. My firm resolve was to guard the sovereign land of an allying country and retake territory presently held by invading forces. During the process of battling my unseen enemy, I decided to execute a new strategy to make my personal warring more effective. So I elected to climb a tree and hang upside down from a sturdy limb to surprise my adversary from above, where, I assumed, he would be defeated by the brilliance of my new attack scheme. Unfortunately, I failed to foresee the potential pitfalls of clinging precariously to my horizontal perch.
My hands began to slip to the ends of my fingers. My feet feet began to lose any grip they had previously achieved. Despite my valiant efforts to stay latched onto the safety of my limb and before I could develop and test an alternative solution, I fell ten feet below to the place where the flat of my back engaged the forest floor. The immediate sensation I felt was one of disorientation. The second
was a panicking reaction to not being able to take a breath. All the air within me had been knocked out of my traumatized lungs. All soldiering was suspended. All battling ceased. I lay there in complete weakness before my advancing adversaries because of my self-inflicted, debilitating wound.
I became an easy target for far too long that day. There I was straining to call on God for His Omnipotent helping hand I had heard about, even though it was impossible to truly cry out because of my immediate injury. He heard my silent scream anyway. I was a disabled warrior in desperate need of help beyond myself and He caused my breath to return. Recovery had come from an extremely vulnerable position, but I needed the righteous right arm of the Powerful One to rescue me. It was a defenseless child in need of the safety found in his Father, not a strong warrior who was self-sufficient.
This reminds me so much of what happens when there is a treasured teaching of Holy Spirit that would beautifully enhance our individual lives and the life of the church. It is an empowering revelation that we need to be warring against any attempt of our enemy to steal from us. Sometimes we come up with our own strategy on how to protect such a valuable revelation. Or worse yet, there are only a few warriors battling to protect precious revelation territory that others in the army of God fail to value. Either way, we all may need a rescue from a willing deliverer to guard the revelation, restore it to our lives, and release abundant life to the church worldwide.
The revelation of Father's heart and fathering is like that. Those that have benefited from this amazing revelation will battle against the enemy's attempts to steal this empowering teaching from their lives and the body of Christ. They will sacrifice their own comfort to comfort others with this life-changing message because it is Kingdom territory worth protecting.
On the other hand, there are those who feel they see inherent dangers in this powerful teaching and, basically, call it error, dangerous, or heresy. Something so good is portrayed as something not worth guarding, or preserving. Something so sublime is found to be lacking because human frailty has caused an aberration of this wonderful truth, when it is corrupted by poor human examples. Insecure leaders who overlord, control, and abuse their flocks have caused many destructive consequences in the lives of the precious people that trusted these leaders. Counterfeit fathers who have taken advantage of sons and daughters disqualify themselves from modeling Father's love, or to be considered true fathers. This is an error (often intentional) in the execution of the revelation of fathering. However, the revelation itself isn't disqualified, only the poor examples who fail to exemplify the true Father's heart.
Additionally, there are those who say they believe fully in fathering, but when they see that it means repenting to receive healing of unforgiveness, hurt, pain, bitterness, offense, accusation, slander, libel, gossip, judgment, division, etc., they balk at allowing the revelation to bring the amazing transformation that God intends. They often blame innocent teachers of the Father's love, or those who model fathering, by accusing them of self-serving control. What at first is joyfully embraced is later persecuted because it requires a willingness to die to the flesh. The flesh rarely dies easily. It might flop around like a fleshly caught fish on a dock before it finally succumbs to death. The flesh must die for us to volunteer to be fathered because our independence and codependence must be humbled in order to be raised up faithful through interdependence.
Fathering is a movement within the body of Christ that has been restored in these latter days by the Holy Spirit to activate many beneficial Kingdom qualities. It has been gifted to the children from the Father's heart to lavish favor upon His sons and daughters for their fullest edification and encouragement.
For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. I Corinthians 4:15, 16
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