‘CALL NO MAN A FATHER’ The above caption was an excerpt from Jesus’ statement in Matt23:9 that says: “And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven”. There is no contradiction of scripture, for in Matt5:17-19 Jesus reckoned that He came to fulfill what was written of Him, about Him and for Him. It has also been declared that we honor our Fathers and Mothers(Exo20, Eph6)with a strong prophetic unction that creates the enabling environment for longevity. In Matt12:46-50 was the following interaction: “While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him. Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee. But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother”. I deduce with all fairness, clarity and without a shade of doubt that godly parenting, concurring with God’s standards should be identified by every rational being as basis for the right to call a person either a father or mother. For example, Abraham was commended by God as one ready to impart principles to his succeeding generations – Gen18:17- 19. By instinct Moses refused to identify with Pharaoh’s daughter(Heb11:23-27) because the sort of training pact designed for him was shallow, embedded with cultural practices to render the word & purpose of God of non- effect. The percentage of parents whose method of nurturing children, commensurate with God, is negligible, hence the need for critical evaluation by level-headed beneficiaries like Moses in an Egyptian palace and to some extent Joseph in Potiphar’s house where the scheme of a wife pointed to undermining his godly posture and full manifestation of his dream. I am sure that Jesus’ relatives, knowing His training as a carpenter were not happy about His sudden turnaround, preaching for free. But carpentry was a strategic choice from His Father in Heaven. For a carpenter can pick a piece of discarded wood, put value to and showcase it, to make huge profit, which same piece of wood could be seen as bio-fuel by others. Like in Acts16:16-19, some fathers are actually making profits to satisfy their insatiable passions instead of God’s business. A young man introduced himself to the father of a lady as the nephew of onetime Commander of the Ghana Army during the 1980s. The father whose preoccupation was to break the jinx/cycle of poverty in his family thought that the linkage to an Army General through his daughter’s relationship with this man was a means to make wealth, convinced his daughter to accept the suitor’s proposal to pass the night with him. This daughter was reluctant but succumbed to her father’s foolish urges, and having slept outside with a man whose tract record had not been established, was all the harm the self-centred father brought to bear on this lady’s future. According to Heb12:9-10, fathers in the flesh have myopic view of the future and to satisfy their strong appetites for physical things, they do not take far-reaching decisions but temporary /First Aid type. The marriage did not materialize & at age fifty-five(55) this lady’s present marriage is without an issue. The benefits derived from a father of the caliber of our Heavenly Father are many. My concentration on the Holy Spirit who I call Father of spirits places me ahead of others. The Holy Spirit is Father of spirits because in Matt chapter1, He conceived Jesus in Mary’s womb. No wonder before the exit of the spirit of Christ from the flesh, He declared in Luke23:46 :- “And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost”. For some, we place highest premium on our real self ie the upliftment of our spirits, which with the Holy Spirit’s fellowship, can tame the stubborn self-will of the soul, and the insistent, self-gratifying appetite of the flesh, to bring harmony to our total being as Prov18:14 confirms – “The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?”, & again Rom8:5-9,
Posted on: Fri, 22 Nov 2013 12:18:19 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015