I love the story of Jesus birth. And you know, Mary being, you know, touched by  the Holy Spirit and conceived Jesus. And you think about a 15 year old girl, what went through her mind and what she was thinking and feeling when she went,  you know, as she realized she was pregnant with the Christ child, and just love  the story. But there's something I noticed recently. In fact, my wife Laverne  helped me to understand and see this, and that is how she realized she needed  a spiritual mother. In the midst of this whole situation she was going through as  she was going to be birthing Jesus, the Bible says in Luke 1:39 says, At that  time, Mary got ready and hurry to a town in the whole country, was Judea,  where she entered Zacharias home and greeted Elizabeth. Of course, it was her relative. And really, I'm convinced a spiritual mother. Bible doesn't talk about  Mary's own mother, but she had this spiritual mother, Elizabeth. And Elizabeth,  when she heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped at her womb. But she was  pregnant with John the Baptist. Obviously, it was a family deal going on here.  And it says Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice, she  exclaimed, blessed are you among women. She says, prophesying, and bless  this child that you will bear. Why am I so favored? The mother of my lord, should come to me. And she just, you know, prophesying and all this is going all the  supernatural stuffs going on, but it's interesting. When they came together, what  they did, and this is important for spiritual parenting, spiritual mothering, and  also spiritual fathering. The Bible says in chapter 1 of Luke verse 46 Mary said,  My soul magnifies the Lord. My spirit rejoices in God, my Savior. He's been  mindful of the humble seed of his servant. I won't read the rest, but what did  they do? They magnified God. And so the important thing in a spiritual parenting  relationship is they were magnifying the Lord. And this is about what's our needs or what's going on with us, but how can we honor the Lord and magnify the  Lord? So we see Mary and her spiritual mama, Elizabeth, rejoicing the Lord and  magnifying the Lord in the midst of this, in the midst of this whole situation. So in spiritual mothering, to say a few more things about spiritual mothering, and then  also spiritual fathering. And these principles all apply to one another, and that is,  we magnify the Lord. We want to make sure we're focusing on Jesus in the  midst of us. Our focus must be upward, not just to meet her own needs. Susan  Hunt wrote this great book in spiritual mothering years ago. Here's what she  said. She said, when women do for other women, when Elizabeth did for Mary,  we will see young women burst forth in lives of praise to God. I think that's  fantastic. So here's the question, women of God, I'll talk to you. First, will we  allow God to deposit his nurturing heart, his nurturing spirit, into our lives, so we  can pour our lives into other women? Will we allow that to happen? And I  believe the answer you say is yes, I'm willing to do that. So again, spiritual  mothering, relationships or fathering can be long term. Can be short term. They  can be long distance. To be through letters to Skype. Can be through texting to  phone calls. You know, whoever God is connecting you with for a season of 

time. And you know, the Scripture says that Jesus only did that which he saw his father doing using. Said, the father's always working, and he only did we saw his father doing. Let's just be open to what's the Father doing. You have to force this to happen. If you're a spiritual mom, a spiritual dad, God will bring you into  

relationship some short term, some longer. Sure, there'll be issues and  problems. There always is in parenting. I've often said that both natural and  spiritual children can give you the greatest joy or the greatest pain. Now say that again, both natural and spiritual. Children will give you the greatest joy, the  greatest pain, but it's worth it all. And we look at the pain that God the Father,  but he had, you know, Adam and Eve, and the pain they call it will cause him as  a father, and then their next generation and the next generation. But we see the  plan of God through it all. So whatever the father's doing, allow the deposit that  God has placed in our hearts to burst forth and permeate this nurtureless  Society and the church today. And as I said, my wife, Laverne, is not with me as  I'm doing this taping. I'm here in Michigan, and she's back in Pennsylvania, and  she her heart this week, she is nurturing and helping women of all different  ages, helping them fulfill the purpose of God for their life, some short term, some longer, some longer term. Now, let me say one more thing about this. If you're  married and man, you know husband and wife and you're both serving Jesus,  teamwork is powerful. Aquila and Priscilla is a great example of this, in fact, if  you turn a turn your Bibles with me to Acts 18. I will show you how this works,  Priscilla and Aquila, where a team, and then together, Priscilla and Aquila were  able to mentor Apollos who was a powerful apostolic teacher. And the Bible says verse 24, chapter 18:24 meanwhile, you name Apollos a native of Alexandria  came to Ephesus. He was a very learned man. He was brilliant, with a thorough  knowledge of the Scriptures. He been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he  spoke with great fervor, and he talked about Jesus accurately. Though he only  knew the baptism of John, he had partial revelation. And what did they do?  Priscilla and Aquila heard Him. The Bible says he began to speak boldly in the  synagogue when Priscilla and Aquila heard him. It's interesting. It says Priscilla  and Aquila so somehow she was taking the lead in this situation. It says they  invited him to the home. They didn't rebuke him publicly. They took him into their home. They mentored him. Now, Priscilla and Aquila as a team mentored him.  We don't recommend men mentoring women and women mentoring men. We  recommend, because they can get very, very sticky and very, very tricky. We've  seen, we've seen when that has happened. There have been times when there's this very spiritual relationship. Can become an emotional relationship when it's  the opposite sex. And it can be, it can be really detrimental, but, but teamwork is great. So here they were together, mentoring Apollos, she was taking the lead.  That was fine. And what happened? Well, it says he explained to him the way of  God more adequately in verse 27 when Apollos wanted to go to Achaia, the  brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples or to welcome him with 

either opening doors for him and arriving, he was a great help to them. He  vigorously refuted the Jews in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that  Jesus Christ was that Jesus was the Christ. He had a greater anointing than  they had, especially in teaching. But they helped them make some changes.  And what they did is they were spiritual moms and spiritual dads to Apollos. So  teamwork is powerful. I find, for example, in marriage counseling, just the last  couple days, we're doing some marriage counseling with some of our leaders.  And it was interesting, my wife, Laverne, is much more of a counselor than I am, and I feel great about that, and I'm there and praying and offering a few things  here and there. She's one who's leading the way, because she is a grace and  anointing from God in that area. So learn your strengths, learn how you can  work together and how you can be a Priscilla and Aquila team. Course, Romans 16:3-5, we have the church meeting in the house of, again, of Aquila and  Priscilla. Now let me, let me say this yet about the relationships, whether it's a  teamwork or your father in the LORD or mother Lord, there are three vital  relationships each of us have. You'll find this important in the house church.  Number one, Paul relationships. We need fathers and mothers in the Lord.  Number two, Barnabas relationships. We need peer relationships. So if you're a  house church leader, you need other house church leaders, others in Christian  leadership to be peers. You need those over you in the Lord. And number three,  Timothy relationships, sons and daughters in the Lord. They say, Where does  this start? I find usually it starts by being up, you know, by having Timothy  relationships, finding someone, then you can just help them grow. And you have  to say to them, I'm going to mentor you. I'm going to coach you. I'm going to  father you don't have to say that just do it, just be there for them. Say, would you like to meet and talk about life, and could I ask you some questions that could  perhaps help you, and I really believe in you. And most people will say, Well, of  course, that'd be fantastic. If they don't, then go to somebody else. That's fine.  See, these three vital relationships we all need. You need them. I need them. I  have them by the grace of God. God wants you to have them as the same. And  they are Paul relationships, those over us, the Lord, peer relationships, those  who are doing the same kinds of things and environment, and that's Barnabas  relationships, then Timothy relationships, those who we are mentoring and we  are coaching and we are serving as spiritual fathers and mothers. Now this is all birth and prayer. Obviously, I was just got to lead you the right relationship. I was teaching on this in a near University in Pennsylvania. Young man came to me  says I'm a new believer. I'm six months old in the Lord. I hear what you're  saying. I feel weird feeling I'm a spiritual father. He said, would be okay if I just  be a big brother or somebody. You can call it whatever you want. The truth is,  we're following the scripture or following the mandate that the Lord has given to  us. Now, what I'd like to look at yet in this session, just for a few moments, is  importance of understanding that we can't give to others something we don't 

have. Because the reality is, if you remember the example of John, you know,  we've got to be secure in the love of our Heavenly Father. I mean, James and  John had some real issues. They were called the Sons of Thunder, and Jesus  picked them, but, yeah, they're the ones that said, Jesus, you don't want to go  into that Samaritan area. If you do that, it's just called fire down from heaven on  

them. And Jesus said, You don't know what spirit you're operating out of. See,  he was mentioning and helping them through that. But you know, something  happens somewhere. John is often known as the apostle of love. So much love  comes out of his writings. Something changed in John's heart. And I don't know  exactly what happened, you know, I wasn't there, obviously what happened. But  John, when he writes the book of John, five times, he says he's the disciple  whom Jesus loved. He somehow knew he was loved by Jesus. And we're here  in leadership, and you're called to lead a house church. You've got to know  you're loved by your heavenly Father. And I told you, so my. Story. Now, perhaps every time I tell you a bit more where I didn't always know that, and when I got a revelation, not just here, but here, I was loved by my heavenly daddy, it changed everything. Because otherwise, if you don't know you're loved by your heavenly  Father, you know what we end up doing. We try to use these relationships to get love back. You use these relationships to get affirmation back. And we can't. We  need to work total up our Heavenly Father. We're free just to give so here's John saying he leaned on the breast of Jesus, saying the disciple who Jesus loved  was laying on his breast again. Five times. In the scriptures, he says that he's  loved by he's loved by Jesus. And the only thing I can figure out, honestly, is in  John 15:9 he said, As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Jesus said  that to his disciples. John was there as the Father. Jesus said, as I'm perfect  and live by the Heavenly Father, that's how much I love you. And somehow John got a revelation that he was loved by his heavenly Father, that we need to get  that in our heart. You need a house church without knowing that, and you're  gonna You can even begin to use people to try to get active at you know, get  affirmation for yourself. You just don't ever go there. We are loved better. Jesus  were loved by Heavenly Father, unless we can pour love out another. So here's  the deal, spiritual fathers and spiritual mothers will be secure whether or not  people affirm them, because except your leadership, you're not always affirmed.  It's great when we are but we're often not. But spiritual fathers mothers will be  secure whether or not people affirm us, because our significant comes from his  love for us and His love for us alone. So when we're secure in the love of Jesus, when we're secure in the Father's love, you know, we can love unconditionally,  as I shared with you in a former session, I didn't always know this, and when I  realized that Jesus loves me, this I know for the Bible tells me so, it changed my life. And I've been a mega church pastor, didn't even know that going through all these things, because I didn't feel affirmed by people. People didn't always  approve of me. You know, people will not always approve of you. Sometimes 

people you love might even leave. You know, Paul said that again and again his  last letter to Timothy, they all left me and of course, Timothy didn't, he said, But  the Lord stood with me. Yet we know the last chapter wasn't written. We know  we're here today because of knowing, obviously Jesus and all he did on the  cross, but because of obedience of people like Paul the apostle and others,  we're here today. You know, I love the story of Mark John Mark. He made a  bunch of crazy mistakes. You know, he was with Jesus in the garden, and he,  remember, he left, and they grabbed his cloak, and he kept on running, and he  ran out, and Jesus there, and he was on a great missionary journey in Acts 13,  there was Paul and Barnabas and Luke and John Mark and and you know, you  read that, you read that chapter. And you know, few verses where the 10 to 12  verses down, 13 verses down, Mark's gone. He left. And, and then, you know,  but they moved. They moved on. So all those people come to Christ, and they  were back ordained elders in every church, and they came back to Antioch. And  then the Acts 15, he had a Jerusalem Council, and Paul and Barnabas and all  the leaders. And at the end of Acts 15, you have Paul and Barnabas having a  conversation. Paul said, let's get back and visit the church and Barnabas said,  Yeah, let's do it. And and then Barnabas said, but I want to take John Mark  along. And Paul says, No way are you taking John Mark along? He messed up  last time. We're not taking him along. And the division was so deep between  these brothers who loved Jesus, Paul and Barnabas, that they went their own  ways. And, you know, Paul took Silas with him and went to visit the churches,  and Barnabas, you know, took John Mark and they went up. But it's really  interesting. Later on we see what happened. There was a reconciliation. But the  interesting thing about this is that there were those who were fathers in the Lord  to Mark in this whole process. The Bible says in I Peter 5:13, Peter calls Mark  his son. So somehow Peter became a father in the LORD to John Mark. And of  course, you know, Barnabas, his relative, he was always there. There for him is  interesting in Acts 12:12 is interesting that, you know, his mother's home was  used for prayer. So he grew up understanding the importance of prayer. His  mother was a woman of God. But you know, we have the book of Mark today,  because there were fathers in his life and who somehow helped them and got  him restored. And then we find that the you know, the Paul's writing his letters  the end of his life, he says, please bring Mark along, send Mark to me, because  Mark is going to be is a will be very helpful to me. So somehow they were  restored. Now let me share this with you. There's something that's really helped  me. I found that we need to strive for a healed relationship, relationships with  whoever were out of relationship with. And you know, the Bible says Pursue  peace with all men as much as you can. You can't always be in perfect  relationship with people. We do what you can, but believe. We our natural  fathers. We need to pursue healing with natural fathers. Some natural fathers  don't want healing. Some are gone to be with the Lord, and they've had terrible 

backgrounds. By saying to all you can so in your own heart, you know you're  free. Because if we're not free in these areas, we can impart something that's  unhealthy to those whom we father and mother in the Lord. I was in Anchorage  Alaska talking to this man of God who planted churches, who had different  nations, and I was just a young pastor, and I was just so impressed with him.  And I said to him, of all you've learned in all these years, I said, What's the one  thing that stands out to you? What truth can you share with me as a young  leader, as your training leaders? Here's what he said, I would never place  anyone in leadership unless I knew he had a healed relationship with his father.  Now it doesn't mean the father wants to be healed, but he said, all he can in his  own heart, he's forgiven, he's released. He knows he's free. He said, whatever I  haven't done that, that person became the kind of leader. There's not a father,  but was hurting people rather than helping people. So why is this important?  Well, we gotta be safe, so secure in God, we gotta release people, forgive  people, and bless people, and so secure in God that we can see the gospel go  to the next generation, in a way, it's gonna be a blessing to them. So we are not  spiritual fathers and mothers. What it does for us. We are spiritual fathers and  mothers out of obedience to the Lord, because our God loves us perfectly, and  he wants us to take that love and that heart and impart it into the next, into the  next generation. You know, Luke 15 has a story, the prodigal son, and it's really  interesting with the prodigal son in the father, these two sons and Luke, 15 in the prodigal son took the father's money and, you know, went and spent on  prostitutes and wild living whatever ends up, you know, eating the pig's feed,  working for a farmer with pigs. And you know, his father heard about this. Of  course, he heard about this, but his father never ran after him this. He knew the  son wasn't ready. You may have spiritual children in your life, and you realize  that they aren't ready could be natural or spiritual, and they simply aren't ready  to return to a right relationship. Yet you love them, you pray for them, you keep  the relationship. But what happened was, in the pig pen, he had got a revelation  from God. Said, My servants, the servants of my father's house, are better off  than I am right now. And then He rehearsed in his mind what he's gonna say.  And he said, I'm gonna go back to my father, and you know I'm gonna say, I'm  not willing. I'm not worthy to be your son. Could I be one of your hired servants  and interesting when he started coming back, his father was with looking  waiting, and he saw him from a distance, far away. And the Bible says his father  ran to him and embraced him through my son and welcomed him back. Now,  interesting, because the long robes they wore in those days, it'd be very hard to  run. Historians believe the father actually lifted up his robe and ran to his son.  Now, in the midst of that, if I'd be a neighbor, say, What's wrong with that crazy  man? But see, the father didn't want the son to have shame put on him. He  rather if people would look at him and place on him and say, That's what a  heavenly father did for us, as Jesus went to the cross and took our shame years

ago. But you know, there was this older son, and the older son was angry,  because the way the father responds to the younger son, he said, I have worked for you all these years. See, both of these sons had a wrong, improper  relationship with our Father. And the moral of that whole story is that the heart of God is that each of the sons will become like the father, that they become  fathers to others, nothing about their own issues, their own needs, their own  comparisons, but they have the heart of the Father. So we can't understand. We can't give to others. We just can't give to others. What we don't have? What do  we have we have? We have this heart of love from our father. He loves you  perfectly, and maybe you you've had a background where you haven't had those who would affirm you in that give you a sense of significance. Maybe you've  been abused, you hurt, and I'm agreeing with you right now, in the name of  Jesus, our God is the God of healing. He wants Heal your mind, your spirit, your emotions, and he wants to come now, by His grace and His power and healing,  you can be the healthy spiritual mother and spiritual father that he's called you to be for the next generation, for the glory of God, Amen and Amen 



Last modified: Monday, October 7, 2024, 9:29 AM