Calling All Fathers

For many years now we have watched the decline of fatherhood in our society. I absolutely believe that many of the terrible problems facing America and many other nations today have at their root one major issue: the eradication of true fathers.

This post has been on my heart for a long time and I write it with a heart that grieves for all that has been lost and all that is at stake. It is my hope that when you read this post you will feel empowered to stand up, take your rightful place, and be the heroes you were born to be.

Calling All Fathers: Now Is the Time to Arise

First, I’d like to say that I know some people will be terribly offended by what I am about to say. That’s not my intention, but in the world we live in today, it still seems inevitable. Ultimately it’s your choice, and if you’d like to be offended, there’s nothing I can do to stop you.

But before you go, I would like to ask you to stop and consider the things I’m saying and give a good, hard look at the end game. What I mean is - don’t think about the here and now or what this means to you personally in this moment of time.

Think about what this means long-term, for society, civilization, and humanity as a whole. Think about who benefits if you’re offended. Think about who has something to gain by making you so angry you won’t even consider what I’m saying. If you’re not the one who benefits, if being offended would contribue to the collapse of human society rather than the healing of it, I urge you to read on.

The Real Force Behind Fatherlessness

There has been a massive, long-term, grievous attack on traditional family and family roles.

Some people blame overzealous feminists, some blame political extremists. Ultimately, an enormous breadth of factors have played a part in this: the effemination of men, the masculination of women, the state-sponsored incentives to be a single mother, the politicization of science, the groupthink coercing people to deny facts and accept intuition with no evidence, the pressure to tolerate and even embrace and celebrate deviance, the indoctrination that has permeated many places of education, and - perhaps most grievous - the hypocrisy of the Church that has left many earnest truth-seekers in the world convinced that the Body of Christ has nothing to offer humanity but oppression, hypocrisy, abuse, lies, and death.

But remember what I said back in my post Repentance Isn’t What You Think It Is:

When I was a student, a popular way teachers encouraged us to think critically was by reminding us to ask this question about everything:

Who is benefiting?

Certainly not you.

If you remain in your sin, unable to receive the freedom, healing, and restoration that God wants to give you, are you benefiting?

Since you aren’t benefiting from unrepentance, then who is? Why do we as humans often feel inexplicably compelled to loathe repentance?

For the same reason we feel inexplicably compelled to do a lot of things that cause harm to us or others: demonic influence.

The real force behind fatherlessness is not politics, hypocrisy, injustice, poverty, racism, or anything else like that. Those are just the symptoms of the source of all of these problems.

The real force behind fatherlessness is demonic influence.

The Real Reason Why Fathers Are Being Erased

And just like many people have been led to believe that a lot of the ills in our society are attempts to marginalize certain groups or oppress certain peoples as expressions of systemic racism or class elitism, those too are only symptoms of the real problems on the earth.

There are demonic forces at work deliberately trying to make sure you never know how good God is, because if you really knew, then you would love Him, and if you loved Him, you would be UNSTOPPABLE.

Fathers Teach Us How to Relate to God

Just like I have mentioned in the past that marriage is ordained by God as a way for us to understand His love for us, so also children are given to us as gifts from God so we can understand the heart of the Father.

Good parents love their children. They desire to bless them, not to do harm to them. When you experience that kind of sacrificial love for your imperfect and sometimes exasperating children it makes it easier for you to understand how God can love you unconditionally even when you sin or make mistakes.

But what if you had a father who was absent or abusive? It’s impossible to give what you’ve never received, and it’s much harder to do right by your children when you’ve never seen a good example set.

The Orphan Spirit Cannot Love

Children who have not received the love they need from their parents become victims of the orphan spirit, a demonic influence that insidiously eats away at them for their whole lives until it’s dealt with.

You don’t have to be a literal, physical orphan to suffer from this affliction, either. If you’ve ever suffered any kind of abandonment, rejection, or neglect from your caregivers you can be vulnerable to this attack.

When you suffer from the mindset given to you by the orphan spirit, you believe that no one will look out for you. You believe that nobody will fight for you. You have no one but yourself, and only you can meet your needs.

It might not sound so bad on the surface. As an American especially, I tend to really value independence and self-reliance. But the crux of the matter is that deep down the orphan spirit convinces you that because no one else will have your back, you have to conserve everything to take care of yourself and you can’t afford to spare a drop for anyone else.

The result is that - even without meaning to, even without wanting it - you become selfish, greedy, envious, harsh, bitter, and cold. You cannot give to others because you need those things for you. You cannot show compassion to others because everyone has to make their own way in this world and no one showed compassion to you. You cannot show mercy to others because judgment and injustice is all this world gives and it’s time they woke up to that awful fact like you did when you were a child.

You never felt like you were loved, and as a result you cannot love.

Jesus knew that this would happen, and He called it when He told us in Matthew 24:12:

Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold.

Why the Plague of Fatherlessness is Damning to Humanity

You may have heard there’s some kind of pandemic going on around the world right now, but that, too, is just a symptom. The real pandemic of our times is the lack of fathers leading by example and loving sacrificially. The real problem is that we have generations of children who have grown up as orphans in their hearts, and those children will struggle immensely to understand the love of the Father in Heaven Who truly created them because they never knew the love of their fathers on earth.

And this is the result, written about by the Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 3:1b-5a:

…in the last days there will be very difficult times. For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly.

Sounds a lot like our current times, doesn’t it? Both of these quotes from Jesus and Paul come from when they’re talking about the end times. Are we living in the days of the end? I’ll let the Apostle John answer that with 1 John 2:18:

Dear children, the last hour is here. You have heard that the Antichrist is coming, and already many such antichrists have appeared. From this we know that the last hour has come.

All the way back in John’s day - and he was a contemporary of Jesus - the end times had already begun. Why? Because the spirit of the antichrist was already rising.

Those of you who are familiar with history know that the rise of communism isn’t new. You know that just as China is vehemently pursuing world domination now other empires throughout history have also risen and fallen in the same pursuit.

As the wise King Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 1:9:

What has been will be again,
    what has been done will be done again;
    there is nothing new under the sun.

Modern globalization has brought vast improvements to our way of life in terms of comfort and convenience, but there’s just one hitch: there is a sinister force secretly urging the peoples of the world to join together under one massive government. The root of this push for globalism is the spirit of the antichrist, because it wants to rebuild Babel.

You can read about the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11:1-9:

At one time all the people of the world spoke the same language and used the same words. As the people migrated to the east, they found a plain in the land of Babylonia and settled there.

They began saying to each other, “Let’s make bricks and harden them with fire.” (In this region bricks were used instead of stone, and tar was used for mortar.) Then they said, “Come, let’s build a great city for ourselves with a tower that reaches into the sky. This will make us famous and keep us from being scattered all over the world.”

But the LORD came down to look at the city and the tower the people were building. “Look!” he said. “The people are united, and they all speak the same language. After this, nothing they set out to do will be impossible for them! Come, let’s go down and confuse the people with different languages. Then they won’t be able to understand each other.”

In that way, the LORD scattered them all over the world, and they stopped building the city. That is why the city was called Babel, because that is where the LORD confused the people with different languages. In this way he scattered them all over the world.

I used to wonder what God had against these people that He would come and mess up their tower like that. Later I concluded that there is great danger in being all-powerful with impure hearts and motives. When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we can come together in this way and literally be unstoppable, but because of the Holy Spirit living in us we are able to do so with pure, righteous, and just motives. Without the Holy Spirit, though, if we become unstoppable, it spells nothing but doom and destruction for humanity.

God says in Jeremiah 17:9:

The human heart is the most deceitful of
        all things,
    and desperately wicked.
    Who really knows how bad it is?

So what is the goal of the spirit of the antichrist? To make a counterfeit unity - a false, perverted version of what God says can only be accomplished through His Spirit and His Body (the Church) - with the express intent of abolishing God.

Psalm 2:1-3 talks about this:

Why are the nations so angry?
    Why do they waste their time with futile
        plans?
The kings of the earth prepare for battle;
    the rulers plot together
against the LORD
    and against his anointed one.
“Let us break their chains,” they cry,
    “and free ourselves from slavery to God.”

This same plot is mentioned in the Book of Revelation, which is the last book of the Bible and an extensive prophecy of the end of the age. Revelation 16:12-14 says:

Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great Euphrates River, and it dried up so that the kings from the east could march their armies toward the west without hindrance. And I saw three evil spirits that looked like frogs leap from the mouths of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet. They are demonic spirits who work miracles and go out to all the rulers of the world to gather them for battle against the Lord on that great judgment day of God the Almighty.

Verses 16-21 continue:

And the demonic spirits gathered all the rulers and their armies to a place with the Hebrew name Armageddon.

Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air. And a mighty shout came from the throne in the Temple, saying, “It is finished!” Then the thunder crashed and rolled, and lightning flashed. And a great earthquake struck—the worst since people were placed on the earth. The great city of Babylon split into three sections, and the cities of many nations fell into heaps of rubble. So God remembered all of Babylon’s sins, and he made her drink the cup that was filled with the wine of his fierce wrath. And every island disappeared, and all the mountains were leveled. There was a terrible hailstorm, and hailstones weighing as much as seventy-five pounds fell from the sky onto the people below. They cursed God because of the terrible plague of the hailstorm.

Revelation is pretty intense. But notice all the relevant ideas in here:

This is why I asked you at the beginning of this post to hold off on being offended and think things through, because you being offended by the truth only benefits your enemy, not you.

Peter warns against just that in 1 Peter 5:8:

Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.

There is a way to salvation, but it isn’t through offense. See Romans 10:13 and Joel 2:32:

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

If you don’t know Jesus Christ yet, He’s my favorite person, and you can read about Him here:

Who Is JC?

The Role of Fathers in the End Times

You might be wondering where I’m going with all this, since this post started out about fathers but ended up being about the end of the age. Well buckle up, because the two are inextricably intertwined.

The Day of the Lord

You may have noticed a recurring theme in many of these Scriptures, and that is “the day of the Lord,” which is often described even in the Bible as “terrible” and “dreadful.” Why? Because it is the day of judgment. Notice that this is exactly when the nations gather together to rage against God Himself. Revelation 16:14, emphasis mine:

They are demonic spirits who work miracles and go out to all the rulers of the world to gather them for battle against the Lord on that great judgment day of God the Almighty.

But Who is the Judge? None other than the King of Righteousness, Jesus Christ Himself. Paul spoke about this in Athens in Acts 17:31:

For he [God] has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead.

Lest there be any doubt about Who this risen Man is, Peter declares it plainly in Acts 2:32:

God raised Jesus from the dead, and we are all witnesses of this.

But Jesus is currently in heaven. So, in order for Him to judge the nations, He must first return. In Matthew 24 His disciples ask Him when He’s coming back and He gives a whole laundry list of things to look out for, but he also quotes the prophet Joel - just like the Apostles Peter and Paul did later. All of Joel 2 could be considered relevant, but for the sake of brevity, here’s the famous passage everybody keeps referring to when they talk about the end times:

Then, after doing all those things,
    I will pour out my Spirit upon all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy.
    Your old men will dream dreams,
    and your young men will see visions.
In those days I will pour out my Spirit
    even on servants—men and women
        alike.
And I will cause wonders in the heavens
        and on the earth—
    blood and fire and columns of smoke.
The sun will become dark,
    and the moon will turn blood red
    before that great and terrible day of the
        LORD arrives.
But everyone who calls on the name of the
        LORD
    will be saved,
for some on Mount Zion in Jerusalem will
        escape,
    just as the LORD has said.
These will be among the survivors
    whom the LORD has called.

So the end times is the run-up to the end of the age, at which point Jesus returns to do the judging that will happen on the day of the Lord.

You’re probably still wondering what this has to do with fathers, right? Don’t worry, I’ll get to that - but first things first.

Elijah Must Come First

The Bible is filled with layers and stories that echo and foreshadow the truth of things to come. In the Old Testament there was a prophet called Elijah who stood up against the falsehoods of an insidious and wicked woman called Jezebel. Despite Jezebel’s bullying, threats, and intimidation, Elijah remained faithful to God and God used him to display His Glory in amazing ways, including miracles.

When Jesus came the first time, He was fearless in the face of relentless lies and intimidation, and He walked in the power of God and performed miracles, which led some people to wonder if he was actually Elijah revisiting the earth. See Matthew 16:13-14:

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”

“Well,” they replied, “some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.”

Why would people think he was Elijah?

First, Elijah never died. He was taken up into heaven by chariots of fire. His apprentice, Elisha, witnessed his ascension and received a double portion of his anointing - the power of the Holy Spirit to walk in the same amazing things Elijah had. This is an amazing story and you can read about it in 2 Kings 2.

Second, people were expecting Elijah to come again before the Messiah. The fact that people were looking for a literal manifestation of Elijah is part of why they missed the fact that Jesus was the Messiah. Look at this exchange between Jesus and His disciples in Matthew 17:10-13:

Then his disciples asked him, “Why do the teachers of religious law insist that Elijah must return before the Messiah comes?”

Jesus replied, “Elijah is indeed coming first to get everything ready. But I tell you, Elijah has already come, but he wasn’t recognized, and they chose to abuse him. And in the same way they will also make the Son of Man suffer.” Then the disciples realized he was talking about John the Baptist.

So how could Elijah have already come, but actually be John the Baptist? Because it wasn’t the man Elijah who needed to come first. It was the Spirit of Elijah.

The Spirit of Elijah

The powerful anointing of the Holy Spirit at work in and through Elijah is referred to as the Spirit of Elijah. Just as the anointing of Moses was one to make a way so that Joshua could win in battle, Elijah’s anointing also was one of preparation for the double-portion of power that Elisha would walk in. It’s no mistake that during the Transfiguration Jesus met with both Moses and Elijah in heaven, because they are the two witnesses and in the end times the church must walk in their anointings of both holiness and unparalleled spiritual power to make way for the second coming of Jesus.

The first anointing to come is the one that clears the way and prepares for the second, and the second is the double portion that will win the war.

The Spirit of Elijah cleans house so that the Glory of the Lord can fill it.

John the Baptist walked with the Spirit of Elijah because it was his destiny to prepare the people for the first coming of Jesus, Who would come and bring salvation to the earth. Now we are on the cusp of the end of the age, and we need to walk in that same Spirit with that same power to prepare the world for the second coming of Jesus.

But exactly what kind of anointing is that? Let’s look at what was spoken over John before he was even conceived.

The Destiny of John the Baptist

John the Baptist’s mother was barren, but the Lord miraculously allowed her to become pregnant so she and her husband Zechariah could have John. God even sent an angel to tell Zechariah this would happen. Speaking about John the Baptist, the angel said in Luke 1:13-17:

“Don’t be afraid, Zechariah! God has heard your prayer. Your wife, Elizabeth, will give you a son, and you are to name him John. You will have great joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the eyes of the Lord. He must never touch wine or other alcoholic drinks. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even before his birth. And he will turn many Israelites to the Lord their God. He will be a man with the spirit and power of Elijah. He will prepare the people for the coming of the Lord. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and he will cause those who are rebellious to accept the wisdom of the godly.”

Notice verse 17: “He will be a man with the spirit and power of Elijah.” Because of this, “He will prepare the people for the coming of the Lord.”

And notice what John the Baptist’s father, Zechariah, prophesies about him when he’s born in Luke 1:76-79:

“And you, my little son,
    will be called the prophet of the Most
        High,
    because you will prepare the way for the
        Lord.
You will tell his people how to find
        salvation
    through forgiveness of their sins.
Because of God’s tender mercy,
    the morning light from heaven is about
        to break upon us,
to give light to those who sit in darkness
        and in the shadow of death,
    and to guide us to the path of peace.”

The Anointing of John the Baptist is the Forerunner Anointing. The calling of a forerunner is to run ahead and prepare the way so that others can follow. Forerunners are trailblazers. They are pioneers. They preach the truth before it’s popular because they have foresight no one else is interested in yet. God has placed eternity in their hearts and they have fire shut up in their bones. They feel compelled to speak the truth and they do it in a way that captivates people around them and turns hearts from the inevitable death and destruction wrought by lies to the living love and confidence of truth.

And Who is that Truth? Jesus Christ.

When John the Baptist was asked to state clearly who he was, here’s how he responded in John 1:23:

John replied in the words of the prophet Isaiah:

“I am a voice shouting in the wilderness,
    ‘Clear the way for the Lord’s coming!’ ”

The Spirit of Elijah is the Spirit of John the Baptist, and the Spirit of John the Baptist is the pioneering, trailblazing, forerunner Spirit. It is the calling and anointing to be bold and go ahead into unknown territory, to lead the way so others can follow. And what way are they preparing? The way of the Lord, because He is coming. In Revelation 22:12, Jesus Himself tells us:

Look, I am coming soon, bringing my reward with me to repay all people according to their deeds.

The Spirit of Elijah is the prophetic anointing that declares and prepares the coming of the Lord. Revelation 19:10b says:

For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

Still with me? Let’s look at another passage of Scripture that refers to both the Spirit of Elijah and the Day of the Lord.

In Malachi 4:5, God says:

Look, I am sending you the prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the LORD arrives.

But look what He says next (verse 6):

His preaching will turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers. Otherwise I will come and strike the land with a curse.

In other words, if fathers abandon their children, children will not listen to their fathers, and it will destroy the land.

Why the Land Is Cursed

Remember way back at the beginning of this blog post when I told you that all the upheaval in society today is actually a symptom of something far more sinister?

Demonic spirits have been working overtime to ensure there is a mass shortage of decent fathers, to ensure each generation is more orphaned than the last, to ensure that those whose job it is to love, train, raise up, and protect their children injure, abandon, and murder them instead.

Why? Because when fathers fail their children, the hearts of the children become so damaged they cannot receive the love of God. When they cannot receive the love of God, they rebel.

But what is rebellion except utter self-destruction?

Rebellion is a flame that can’t be quenched, but all it knows how to do is burn. It burns up everything around it and eventually it burns itself out.

James 1:15b says:

And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.

There is no other outcome.

Think of all the people these days raging in their victimhood. It’s true that all of us have been hurt by others in the past. I won’t minimize that pain. When you’re in intense anguish it’s easy to be swept away by feelings of helplessness and a desire for vengeance in the absence of justice. It’s easy to make your pain your whole identity and figure if those who hurt you won’t be held responsible for their actions there’s no reason why you should be held responsible for yours either. I get it. But where does that road lead? What is the ultimate outcome at the end?

In Romans 6:20-23, Paul says:

When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right. And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom. But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Let me pull out a few highlights from that passage:

You reap what you sow. If you are “free” from doing right you are a slave to sin. If you are a slave to sin, the only payment you will ever receive for your fruitless labors is death.

Galatians 6:7-8 reiterates this point:

Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit.

The absent and abusive fathers have sown an orphan generation, and we are reaping that destruction all over the world right now.

It’s Not All Your Fault

It might sound like I’m blaming fathers for the crazy times we’re living in. But actually, there has been a long-term war waged against fathers for a very long time now. Again, this might manifest through politics, but only as a symptom, because the real war is a spiritual one.

Ephesians 6:12 says:

For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

The enemies of your soul are working hard to make sure that at least one of the following applies to every baby born on earth:

Some men genuinely do their very best to be the best fathers they can be, but they still fail. That’s because all of us are only human and we can’t fill that void in our children’s hearts that only God can fill. We are imperfect and we will all fail. I don’t think it’s possible for you to be a perfect father because there is only One truly perfect Father, and that is our Heavenly Father God.

But God loves to use us to do good even though we are imperfect, and He doesn’t require perfection to do great things through you - He only requires willingness.

Every generation becomes more broken because every generation is further wounded by their own broken and imperfect earthly fathers. As a result, every generation has that many more obstacles to overcome before they can truly grasp that their Father in Heaven, God, really, truly loves them.

But fathers, this is where you save the day.

Fathers Can Redeem the Land

Let’s go back and look again at what part of John the Baptist’s calling was, as spoken by the angel in Luke 1:17:

He will be a man with the spirit and power of Elijah. He will prepare the people for the coming of the Lord. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and he will cause those who are rebellious to accept the wisdom of the godly.

What is the solution to the rampaging rebellion all over the world today? What is the solution to the identity crises fueling victimhood and pouring gasoline on the raging fire that is currently destroying the whole land?

Fathers, Turn Your Hearts Back to Your Children

Fathers, when you turn your hearts back to your children, they can be healed. They can be made whole. You can stop this pervasive destruction from passing on from your generation to the next. You can stop the progression of evil and destruction and give future generations a chance to live with less baggage than you had to carry. You can give them the gift of life.

Just like God gave the Israelites a choice in Deuteronomy 30:15, He is giving you the same choice now:

Now listen! Today I am giving you a choice between life and death, between prosperity and disaster.

Again in verse 19 He says:

Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!

Can’t you hear how urgently He longs for you to make the choice that gives you life? He is a good Father, and He wants what’s best for you.

The choice between life and death is a choice between God and idols. It is a choice between the prosperity that comes from living under the favor of a Heavenly Father and the disaster that comes from living as an orphan. Let me write again what God pleads in verse 19, emphasis mine:

Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!

Choosing God brings salvation to your descendants.

Here God is setting the perfect example of a perfect Father. He loves His children and He is urging them to choose what is right - not because He’s on some kind of high and mighty power trip, but because He wants the ones He loves to LIVE.

Look at the second part of Luke 1:17 again:

He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and he will cause those who are rebellious to accept the wisdom of the godly.

When the hearts of the fathers turn again to their children, then the wounds that cause rebellion will be healed and those who are rebellious will accept the wisdom of the godly.

And what is that wisdom?

In Proverbs 9:10 we find our answer:

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of
        wisdom,
    and knowledge of the Holy One is
        understanding.

Make Your Choice

God has set before you life and death. You can allow each successive generation to become more broken and more damaged until nothing is left but abject wickedness that has only one end - absolute and utter destruction. Or you can choose God. Choose life.

Deuteronomy 30:20a says:

You can make this choice by loving the LORD your God, obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him. This is the key to your life.

Rise Up and Take Your Place

It doesn’t matter where you’ve been or what you’ve done. Every day is a new day in the Lord and from this moment on you can be part of the solution and not part of the problem. But there’s a need on the earth in this hour, and it’s time for you to fill it.

Some of you might feel a stirring in you now and you want to respond, because you know that you were born for this, but maybe you feel like you’re not eligible or qualified. Let me tell you, you can be a father to children who aren’t biologically yours. You can be a spiritual father to anyone younger than you in the faith. You can be a father by filling in for a father who isn’t there, by interceding on behalf of a father who can’t yet come before the Lord himself. It’s not about age. It’s about blessing. If you see a need, fill it.

Mentor someone. Pray for someone.

Today we talked a lot about the Spirit of Elijah and the Anointing of John the Baptist. Now let me tell you about the most powerful anointing: the one that Jesus walked in.

The Anointing of Jesus

In Luke 4, Jesus goes out into the wilderness where He fasts and is tempted by satan. He overcomes by rebuking the devil with the living and active Word of God, and when He comes back He is filled with power.

Luke 4:14-21 says:

Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit’s power. Reports about him spread quickly through the whole region. He taught regularly in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.

When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures. The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written:

“The Spirit of the LORD is upon me,
    for he has anointed me to bring Good
        News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives
        will be released,
    that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free,
    and that the time of the LORD’s favor has
        come.”

He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”

Jesus knew what He had to do, and it is also what He has called us to do. In John 14:12, Jesus tells His disciples:

I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father.

We are to be like Jesus. We are anointed by the Spirit of the Lord to declare the Good News:

Fathers, You Are Released

Some of you have had it on your hearts to father the fatherless - whether in a literal sense through actual adoption, through a symbolic sense through being there for someone, or in a spiritual sense through intercession and mentorship - but you have felt like you need someone’s permission. You have felt like you are not allowed to go unless you’re “called” or “ordained” or “approved” for duty in the ranks of Heaven’s Armies by someone like a pastor, priest, or minister.

That’s just another symptom of the fatherlessness of this age: without fathers, boys never know when they are men, because they are never acknowledged, commissioned, and sent out by those who should be fathers to them.

Some of you need to hear the voice of a father telling you you have become a man. Some of you need to know that God approves of you and He is commissioning you to go out and be everything that you were made to be.

Let me tell you, God is your Father and you need no one else’s permission to serve Him.

Look again at Jesus in Luke 4:20-30, right after He finishes accepting the commission of Isaiah, without any priest or “higher-up” giving Him permission to:

He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”

Everyone spoke well of him and was amazed by the gracious words that came from his lips. “How can this be?” they asked. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”

Then he said, “You will undoubtedly quote me this proverb: ‘Physician, heal yourself’—meaning, ‘Do miracles here in your hometown like those you did in Capernaum.’ But I tell you the truth, no prophet is accepted in his own hometown.

“Certainly there were many needy widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the heavens were closed for three and a half years, and a severe famine devastated the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them. He was sent instead to a foreigner—a widow of Zarephath in the land of Sidon. And many in Israel had leprosy in the time of the prophet Elisha, but the only one healed was Naaman, a Syrian.”

When they heard this, the people in the synagogue were furious. Jumping up, they mobbed him and forced him to the edge of the hill on which the town was built. They intended to push him over the cliff, but he passed right through the crowd and went on his way.

Take note of these points:

But also take note of this: Mark 1:22 shows how He was different from all the teachers they had seen before:

The people were amazed at his teaching, for he taught with real authority—quite unlike the teachers of religious law.

Let me reiterate that point: Jesus taught with real authority, something the other teachers lacked. Jesus’ authority didn’t come from man, but from God Himself directly.

God is your Father, and He is your authority.

Some of you are being held back right now by the expectations of your own earthly fathers or others who have had leadership roles over you in the past. But if God tells you to go, then go! If God tells you to lead, then lead! If God tells you to speak, then speak! If God tells you to move, then move!

Look at Paul’s example. In Galatians 1:15-17 he recounts how he responded when he was first called by God to preach the Gospel:

But even before I was born, God chose me and called me by his marvelous grace. Then it pleased him to reveal his Son to me so that I would proclaim the Good News about Jesus to the Gentiles.

When this happened, I did not rush out to consult with any human being. Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to consult with those who were apostles before I was. Instead, I went away into Arabia, and later I returned to the city of Damascus.

Paul didn’t “rush out to consult with any human being,” or “with those who were apostles before I was.” Instead he got to work, doing what God called him to.

I’m not saying you should totally ignore all authority - later Paul did go to the other believers to make sure he was on the right track. Galatians 2:1-3 says:

Then fourteen years later I went back to Jerusalem again, this time with Barnabas; and Titus came along, too. I went there because God revealed to me that I should go. While I was there I met privately with those considered to be leaders of the church and shared with them the message I had been preaching to the Gentiles. I wanted to make sure that we were in agreement, for fear that all my efforts had been wasted and I was running the race for nothing. And they supported me and did not even demand that my companion Titus be circumcised, though he was a Gentile.

Notice, though, that this visit was instigated by God: “I went there because God revealed to me that I should go.” Paul was responding to the direction of God Himself, because he was in personal relationship with God. Since the other believers were also in personal relationship with God, they were all on the same page and all in agreement, and Paul did receive their approval, even though he didn’t need it.

You don’t need anyone’s approval but God’s, but you do need to know Him for yourself.

You must have your own relationship with Him. You must know that you know that you know that you know Who He is and who you are in Him. You must know He is your Father, He is good, and He will NEVER fail you like your earthly fathers have.

If you need to be healed of wounds or injuries in your deep heart right now, then ask the Lord. If you need to be delivered from the yoke of generational sin or oppression, then break it off in Jesus’ name and ask for Him to set you free. Whatever you need, just ask your loving Father and it’s yours.

Matthew 7:7-11 says:

“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

“You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.

Your Heavenly Father longs to lavish good, good gifts on you. So ask.

And when you are healed and set free, God can use you to heal and set others free.

Save This Generation

Knowing God personally and intimately as our Heavenly Father is the cure for the wickedness that leads to death. Humanity is always only one generation away from extinction, because if the demonic forces can convince people not to trust God as their Father, all humanity is doomed.

James 4:1-3 describes what happens to a generation that cannot trust their Father God to meet their needs:

What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.

Look again at verse 2:

You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it.

Lack drives people to wickedness.

You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them.

Envy leads to war, oppression, and injustice.

Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it.

That’s the crux of the matter. You don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And you don’t ask God for it because you don’t believe He’s good! You don’t ask God for it because you expect Him to give you a snake or a stone! You don’t ask God for it because you expect Him to FAIL you the way your earthly fathers did!

But God is not a man that He should lie. Numbers 23:19 says:

God is not a man, so he does not lie.
    He is not human, so he does not change
        his mind.
Has he ever spoken and failed to act?
    Has he ever promised and not carried it
        through?

He is a good, good Father, and the love He has for you, for me, and for everyone on earth can save this generation.

The Right View of Our Father

A false understanding of Who God is leads to a false understanding of who we are. This is why so many in the world right now are suffering such terrible and deep crises of identity. People no longer know who they are and they are grasping at straws to find any name that gives them meaning.

But there is One Name that is higher, and that is the name of Jesus. He is our perfect, sinless example. And He knew God perfectly as His Father, and it empowered Him to know Who He was and to do the work He had been sent to do.

We must know God as our own personal Father. We must experience Him as our Father. And we must make it our mission to carry the true heart of the Father’s love into the barren, wounded places scarred by absence, neglect, and injury of fallen fathers. None of us are perfect, but all of us can be redeemed.

Fathers, rise up now and be the men that you were born to be.

A Note to Women: The focus of this post was on fathers, but don’t feel left out if you are a woman. There is just as great a void for you to fill as a spiritual mother. You are in a special position to offer godly counsel and comfort to a traumatized generation that needs to know the tender, healing love of God. We all have a role to play and it is time for each of us to take our place.