You know, I meet so many people who say I've heard of being a spiritual father  mother before, or I've had some of my life. Is supposed to be a spiritual father  mother to me. But they were controlling. They were dictatorial. I got really hurt  

by them. And I just don't know if I want it. I do want to try again? I'm not sure that this would really work for me. Well, understand that any, everyone has been hurt by somebody somewhere. But still, there's the truth of spiritual parenting.  There's natural parenting to natural parents make mistakes. Yes, they do that.  Mean we shouldn't be natural parents. Yes, we should. Well, we make some  mistakes. We probably will, but see, we're all called to be spiritual parents. And  you know, whenever someone makes this kind of mistakes, you know why they  make this mistake? Because they the God given us, the manufacturers  instructions, is called the Bible. And when we do not live according to the  manufacturers instructions, that's when we get in trouble. And that's it. That's  when we see people get hurt. But see just because people been a wrong  doesn't mean we shouldn't do it. And so Amy people, they say, I don't want to be involved in a house church. I know people, they start a house church. They were dictatorial, or they start a house church. They were just mad at their local church or their pastor. Oh, there's been lots of crazy things that have happened, but  God wants you to walk in health and walk in blessing and see house churches  establish and house church networks established who love the body of Christ.  They love all the church other churches. And we're not trying to do something  because they're trying to be different. We're just obeying Jesus and helping  people and being spiritual fathers and mothers. So it's really back to the  instructions that God gives. He shows us how to live, and when we don't obey  the manufacturers instructions, we get in trouble. Now, I'm not a cook. I'm just  I'm not my wife will tell you that I remember, we have four children. Our  youngest child's Leticia. She was probably about five years of age, and I'll never forget one Saturday morning I was home alone with her, and she said, Daddy,  will you make breakfast for me? And I said, Well, sure, let's have cereal. And  she said, No, no, no. I mean, like pancakes? Well, I hadn't made pancakes in  years. I said, Really, can we just have cereal? She said, No, Daddy, can we  have pancakes? Says, okay, she's a cutest little blonde, little blonde hair, blue  eyes, sitting on a kitchen table. So I got the pancake mix out and I got some milk and whatever out. I don't remember what it was, but I but somehow I read the  instructions wrong, and the concoction I made was really, really bad, and she's  watching me, you know? And I said, Honey, this isn't working for daddy. Is it  okay if we use a cereal and she's no Daddy, can you try one more time? So I  said, Okay, so this time I thought, you know, this is just crazy. I'll try. I'll try again. I tried to follow the instructions again, but somehow it wasn't what. In fact, what  happened was this, it caught fire. I mean, our kitchen stove, this pancake caught fire. And I'm taking this, this pan with pancakes, and taken outside, and we had  to repaint our kitchen ceiling. It was a bad day, and she's watching this whole 

thing. Okay? I'm with cereal. And said, Honey, can we have cereal? She said it  was in trouble. One more time. Said, Okay, this time I thought, let's just forget  the directions. So I got, you know, all the same stuff out and mixed it in a way I  thought was best. And I remember I was there at the kitchen stove, and my kind  of flipped it like a chef does. And, I mean, I'm not a chef at all, and somehow it  looked like a pancake. So I took this pancake, and placed it on the table, on a  plate for her. And I never forget, gave her the little knife and fork. I'll never forget, put a lot of syrup on, just in case, just so you know that. And so she takes a little  piece of the pancake, and she puts in her mouth and looks up at me with her big blue eyes, and says, Daddy. She said, Could I could I have cereal? Please? She said, This must be a terrible pancake. Now, what happened? My little girl  watched her daddy messed up making pancakes three times because her  daddy somehow didn't know how to follow the manufacturer's instructions. And  when people don't follow the manufacturer's instructions, it gets messed up. And the same thing is true spiritually. Same thing is true in the church. Same thing is  true with being being mentors or coaches or fathers or mothers in the Lord or  disciples, or use whatever term you want to use. So I want to give you some  examples of what can happen when people do not follow the manufacturers  instructions. These are really schemes of the devil. The devil hates, just hates  even this whole concept, because he knows the world can be changed, and  knows that it will be changed as we become spiritual fathers and mothers to  next generation, we start house churches and churches and spiritual families  and nurture people. So I'm going to look with you at some of the schemes of the  devil. So, for example, what is not believing the past can be redeemed. God is a great Redeemer. I love Romans, 8:28, we know all things, then all things. God  works for the good of those who love Him, who've been called according to His  purpose. That's who our God is. And he says, Look, I look for what's happened. I can turn this around for good Galatians, 3:13 love this. He's the redeemer in  Galatians 3:13 it makes it clear that Jesus became a curse for us. He redeemed  us from the curse of the law hanging on a tree becoming a curse for us. See, I  grew up in a family of mental illness. I had many family members, uncles and  aunts and fathers. In fact, my own father's, now with the Lord, had a short  season when he had to go to to a mental hospital for a season. And I, when I  came to Christ and and I still was deal with some depression and and my family, some members of the family, tell me, you realize this is in the bloodline, and this  is in your in the genes, so to speak, and you might have the same kind of  problems in your life. I remember one day I get very depressed. I read this was  a curse, but I thought, I'm stuck with this. I was a new believer. I remember the  place that happened, and I was getting really discouraged and really depressed, and I thought, Okay, I'm going to go down the same road as my grandfather, my  father gone for a bit, my uncles and my aunts. And I remember this scripture,  Galatians, 3:13 just came. You know, when I was a new Christian, what I do is I 

take a three by five card, I cut in fours, I put a place a scripture on there. Every  day, I memorize the Scripture. What I memorized was Galatians 3:13 and  realize, no, this is a curse. This mental illness is a curse. And this was hung on  the cross 2000 years ago, Jesus Christ took that curse, became a curse for me.  So I said in Jesus name devil, you to know that the Bible, my Bible, is true.  Jesus Christ became a curse for me. This mental illness hung on the cross 2000 years ago. I'm redeemed from it. I am free from it. My children will be free from  it. Next Generation is free, and I am will be free from this moment, from any  potential, even a mental illness. You know, that was back that happened back in  my early 20s, talking 40 some years ago, that I've never been tempted with  mental illness since that time. I never will be. Why? Because this curse was  broken. But see, the enemy tries to make it believe that things can't change.  Yes, they can. They can change through Jesus Christ. So here's another thing  that enemy does. The enemies in the enemy will cause us to to back off and  spiritual fathering mother, because it was not passed on to us. You know, the  things that other should have passed on we didn't receive from a former  generation. We didn't have spiritual fathers. Many of us didn't have spiritual  mothers? Well, the word makes it clear that, sure, sure we may not have had  that, but it's a new day, and it's a new beginning, and now's the time to see  spiritual moms and dads released in this generation. I mean so many spirit  dysfunctional, spiritual parents, so many dysfunctional parents. Today I get news for you might say I come from a dysfunctional family. Your heavenly Father is not dysfunctional. You've got to know that your heavenly Father is not dysfunctional. I mean, you've got a new father in heaven. And I said this before, I want to say it again, so I want to make sure you get this a dysfunctional parent will use their  children to fulfill their own vision, that happens in churches all the time, but a  functional parent will get behind the vision they see in their children. Spiritual  children help them do what God's called them to do. And we can break that  pattern in Jesus name. You can break it. You can break it in your own nation,  your own village, your own country, to be the spiritual father he's called you to  be. Here's some other schemes of the devil feeling we must wait till our needs  are met. Then we say, well, and I get a spiritual father, and I can be a spiritual  father. You know, how could I ever lead other people in the house church? And I  haven't had that, that opportunity. Well, there's times we have to start, it's the  next generation. We need to start a press Ecclesiastes 11. One says it like this,  cast your bread upon the waters. In other words, you become a spiritual father.  God will give you spiritual fathers. And I found that was, that was the story of my life. Good for 10 years. I was a I was a pastor, being a spiritual father. Many I  didn't have a spiritual father or spiritual mother during this time, but God, by His  grace, and gave me spiritual fathers. Some people just don't know their  ignorance. They use all know. And I was in Hawaii ministering. And you know,  ignorance, by the way, is a curse that robs us of our inheritance. I'm in in Hawaii 

ministry at a conference and talk about the need for spiritual fathers and and the need for and people came together in this local church in in Honolulu and said,  We need spiritual fathers, and they could lead, you know, house fellowships.  And when young man, a young businessman, a long young lawyer, came up to  me say, I'm going to do it. Said, God's called to be a spiritual father. I got the  revelation. I talked to the main leader, Christian leader of the conference. He  said, I know that man. He said, I've tried to get him to lead a House Fellowship  for many years. He'd never do it, but he got a revelation. The revelation was,  he's called to be a spiritual father. So House Fellowship leaders, house church  leaders, are spiritual fathers. Here's another reason that many, many believers  never get involved in being spiritual fathers apathy. They're simply wrapped up  their own selfish desires, and that's why Revelation 3:19 says it like this, I  continually Discipline and Punish everyone I love, so I must punish you, unless  you turn from your indifference and become enthusiastic about the things of  God. That word enthusiast means to be possessed with God. We should be  enthusiastic about the things about, including being spiritual parents to the next  generation. Here's another one, insecurity. If we're insecure, we're going to  constantly be like, Well, how could God ever use me? I'm afraid I don't know the  Bible well enough all those kinds of things. Well, as I mentioned, mentioned in a  former lesson. You know, Gideon felt insecure and Moses felt insecure, and  Jeremiah felt insecure but God called all them, and he has also called you in the same way, lack of modeling. If no one's model this for you, say, How can I do it?  You'll be the model for the next generation. Impatience. Some people say, Well,  I can't do this because in pain, because I tried and didn't work. No impatience  causes us to quit. We don't see quick results. It's contrary to the scriptural  principle of sowing and reaping, you keep sowing. You know, again, I use a  farming analogy. I grew up a farmer, a farm boy, and we planted a crop, let's say we plant corn, and if there's a storm and a hail storm and it wipes out, you say,  we will never plant corn again. Now that stupid, we go back and plant again. And you might say, I try to mentor somebody. I try to they just try to start a house  church of the past. It didn't work. But you come back and do it again the proper  way, following the the the instructions, properly according to the Scriptures. You  can see great, great blessing. Blessing, release impatience. As I said, Oswald  Chamber said it like this, God's not working toward a particular finish. His  purpose is the process itself. Say that again, God's not working toward a  particular finish. We think, Okay, we got to start a house church, and we got to  multiply house church. Yeah, God wants to do that, but that's not the big deal.  The big deal is the process he's taking you through as you walk through this  journey, you know, there are three stages every vision, there's a honeymoon  stage, you get a vision, we're gonna plant a house church, and then there's a  testing stage. Like, well, these people said they're gonna join with us, and they  didn't join with us. And you know, you're through the testing stage, but those 

who continue to believe God in the midst of the trial, in the midst of the test,  they're the ones that get the blessing. And then we get to the third stage, the  fruitfulness stage, where we find the blessing of God and the grace of God  coming. I find another thing that holds people back is fear of mistakes. They feel  like, man, you know, what? If I make a mistake, you probably will make some  mistakes. And that's just, that's just part of the process, and that's okay. I  mentioned before, Jacob walked with a limp and sure he had made some  mistakes. You know, God changed his name from deceiver to Israel, prince with  God. And God does that, and will do that in our lives. I find that trials and hard  times, even as leaders, make us stronger and prepare us for our future. Many  hurts from the past. You say, Look, you know, I just You take initiative, you try to  be a spiritual father, someone. You plant a house church, and you take a risk,  and it both natural and spiritual. Children, as I said before, have the potential to  give us great joy or great pain. And there are times that this happens. But you  know, the disciples all abandoned Jesus, praise God. He didn't give up. As I said before the Paul's, those he mentored, except Timothy, All seemed to reject Him,  for he seemed at least leave him, maybe out of fear, maybe out of persecution,  but he continued on and so, so grateful. But probably one of the areas that  hinders house church planting, spiritual planting, as much as anything I know is  when people have experienced an abuse of authority and they back off. They  say, I don't know if I can lead. I've been hurt or I've been abused to wrong  spiritual authority. And let me say, like a spiritual fathers and mothers, including  house church leaders, Assistant leaders, cannot be dominating authority figures  who coerce their spiritual children, those they serve, into obedience or  submission. They must be servants who point their spiritual children to Jesus. It  has to be building trust. See, church life house. Church life is building trust. Do  people trust us? And we have a trust account. You know, if I would have a little  jar here, I draw lines on it, they get their trust account. When you make good  decisions, you make decisions of integrity, you get your trust account. Being  begins to get higher and higher. If you have very little trust account, you start a  new church or something. You make a bad decision, people won't trust you. But  even if you make a decision, it's necessary good when you have trust in your  account, you lose a little trust, but you can build it back up. We need to make  sure we have trust in our account. We earn the right to speak into people's lives. They can't just go tell them what to do. We earn the right to do that. Now, my  friend Floyd McClung, who wrote the book The Father heart of God, a great  classic, he makes these comparisons between dominating fathers and fathers in the Lord. He says it like this, a dominating father will function as if they're the  source of guidance for people's lives. For fathers in the Lord, believe that God is a source of guidance. And desire to help other Christians hear His voice. So  fathers in the Lord. Say you can hear God. I'm gonna help you to hear from  God. Dominating fathers. Emphasize the rights of leaders, dominating father. 

Our fathers and Lord emphasize. Their responsibilities of leaders, dominating  fathers seek leaders, set them apart, give them special privileges. But fathers in  the Lord emphasize the body of Christ serving one another. Dominating fathers  seek to control people's actions and lives, but fathers in the Lord encourage  people to be dependent on God. See the difference if we want people to be  dependent on us, we're dominating fathers. If we want people to really depend  on the Lord, then we are releasing fathers and fathers in the Lord, two more  dominating fathers emphasize the importance of the leaders ministering to  people, but fathers and Lord emphasize the importance of equipping the  believers that they can minister to people, and then dominating fathers use rules and laws to control people and force them to conform to a mold. But fathers in  the Lord provide an atmosphere of trust and grace to encourage growth in their  lives. So may you and I be the spiritual mothers and fathers in this generation  who will not be dominating fathers or mothers, but we will run the other direction. We'll run to God. We'll be the fathers and mothers in the Lord that he's called us  to be and that will produce healthy, reproducing, Christ filled, Holy Spirit filled,  house churches that will reach 1000s in our generation.



Última modificación: lunes, 7 de octubre de 2024, 09:33