The Everlasting Father
Today’s Focus: Concept and Principal of the Spiritual Father: Consistency
Scripture: Matthew 23:1-3; Philippians 4:9
Greetings Kingdom Citizens
One of the major issues and disconnects we find in the Body of Christ is consistency. Over my couple of years in ministry and talking with youth there is a consistent theme to why they do not want to attend their particular church or deal with the church. One of the major reasons is hypocrisy. The adults tend not to pay too much attention to the children when there seems to be no problem but what they fail to understand is that the children are consistently watching their daily actions and then on Sunday they say a praise shouting, Hallelujah screaming person. In their eyes, they are asking the question, how can you curse, act like hoodlum and be nasty to people Monday thru Saturday and on Sunday, just change to this “Holy Ghost” filled person for 2 hours. Now they know it is wrong because the preacher is preaching against being hypocrites. And we wonder why the children do not want to deal with “church people”. The people today are looking for what is real and what it is the God has established in the earth and that is family.
Now we have been discussing the concept and principal of the spiritual father. Today we want to discuss the importance of consistency within the House of God which brings about integrity. Now in our modern day culture we hear the phrase “Do as I say and not as I do”. Funny, I can remember hearing adults say, you may hear me curse, but don’t you curse. Huh? Is this what we should be teaching and modeling? Jesus frowned upon this concept with the Pharisees:
Matthew 23:1-3: Then Jesus spake to the multitude and to his disciples, saying: The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do: BUT DO NOT YE AFTER THEIR WORKS: FOR THEY SAY, AND DO NOT.
Jesus tells the disciples and the multitudes, do not be hypocrites. The spiritual father must be consistent in word and deed, just like his father and the Father. This mindset is what is pushing many people away from the church because the church should be a people of integrity. Moreover, even the sinners know that and that is why they do not feel convicted to change because of the people who call themselves believers. When your words do not line up with your actions, your credibility is null and void. The Body of Christ should have fathers whose word has been already worked in them so that they are accurate representations of God the Father.
The culture of the Kingdom is meant to restore fathers to the Body of Christ and young men are to be raised up and young women are to be raised up as proper sons of God. This is why Paul wrote this to the church at Philippi:
Philippians 4:9: Those things which ye have both LEARNED, AND RECEIVED AND HEARD AND SEEN IN ME, DO: AND THE GOD OF PEACE SHALL BE WITH YOU.
Do we see this! Paul is instructing that everything you learned, received, heard and seen me do, do it. Is this not the consistency that the spiritual father and the sons of God should be displaying in the Earth? We must return to the model that produces mature sons of God and the accountability that is demanded by the fathers. This is the consistency that people are looking for, spiritual fathers putting on display the way and nature of the Father. The falling that we are seeing publicly in the church is because of a lack of oversight and a lack of understanding true sonship and the need for fathers and maturation.
We are going to wrap this series up in the next message with God’s model and design that produces His desired outcome.
Peace, Love and Grace from the Father,
Calvin Calhoun, Jr.
