My dad and me

A Dad

Over the last few weeks I have had this “thing” on my mind about being a dad. What is the value of a dad? How can one help? What do we do with this currently “dadless” generation? So many young people are running around without dads or dads that left mom hanging to struggle in the realms of finance and support.

In full disclosure at one point I was that dad. After the loss of my first marriage, I moved on, having two more children. A second divorce came not long after. I now had child support to pay to two ex-wives and three children. But the Lord entered my life and I saw the need to become more responsible not just financially but to provide support emotionally, spiritually and with physical things like warm housing, food and peace. Paying child support, undergirding two step children and maintaining life was not easy but I made it. At the end of “child support” season I had letters from my ex-wives thanking me for being the man I was.

Last night some of this topic was coming up in our prayer time but the Lord has been speaking to me about it for a long time. Over the years of ministry I faced many challenges with a variety of folks in our church fellowships. They included:

• Sons with no dads
• Daughters with no dads
• One parent households of both sides
• Broken parents left behind
• Children with lopsided understanding of family
• Anger, frustration, hurt, pain and more.

I could and have gone off on wayward parents of children who have left them empty handed, broken and busted. Today is not that day. Today is a new day and I see new focus on men and in particular, dads. Grace tells me God believes in reconciliation and restoration of all things. He also tells me one of our “jobs” is to redeem the time. And so I am moving towards that.

What I see happening….

Years ago, in a small Baptist church I prophesied that when the men dance the church would change. Only days later the Toronto outpouring began and men danced. The last few weeks (September of 2013) I have felt the church’s unprecedented growth will be shaped by men understanding who God has called them to be.

I see that the following are readying to change.

• Men will act more like God than ever before towards their wives, children, parents, church family, friends and places of business.
• Men will step up to the plate in leading the next move of grace across the land.
• Husbands will learn the ways of the Lord towards their wives with grace and love.
• Fathers will be fathers as the Father is, to their children. Providing for their children’s emotional, physical and financial needs from a Dad.
• Godly men will help children of broken homes in healthy, godly ways.
• Young men without fathers will turn to “fathers in the faith” to learn.
• Young women will seek out “mothers in the faith” to learn.
• Single parents will see God as their supply, not racing for more brokenness.

We are about to see some amazing things amongst men in this land. Men stepping into place. Balanced in all things of God.

I suspect that young men are going to need help here. Young women and young men will have questions. Older men will question how they plug in.

Malachi 4:6 “He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers

Luke 1:17 “It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, TO TURN THE HEARTS OF THE FATHERS BACK TO THE CHILDREN, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
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