Fathers

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. Luke 1:17; emphasis added

The forerunner, John the Baptist, was ordained by God to prepare the way of the Lord. Throughout church history, in times of spiritual drought, famine, and darkness, God has looked for men and women of similar passion and focus to once again prepare the way of the Lord. Every revival, renewal, reformation, awakening, and move that has poured out from Heaven upon a weary earth found its conception when some man, some woman, some child said Yes to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and entered into a targeted season of entreaty before God on behalf of others.

A bulk of the preparatory work of John in the days before Jesus entered His ministry involved three specific avenues: turning the hearts of fathers back to the children; turning the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous; and to make a people prepared for the Lord. For anyone who wants to see God invade, change, and rearrange their culture, I believe that the “outline” John received from the Holy Spirit is still powerfully effective to use in intercession for any generation—especially this one.

…to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children…

So much has been said, written, and preached about fatherhood. Yet everywhere I look, I see children and teens suffering from negligent, abusive, or disinterested/absent fathers. And as those kids grow up, they do so without the tool chest that healthy fathering provides. Adults are living their lives bent in a way God never created them to lean, in great part due to the deficient and often inexcusable fathering they received. And unfortunately, many mothers have also fallen short as well.

Kids grow up scared, angry, or depressed into very troubled teens who make poor choices, and then they enter into a horribly dysfunctional adulthood where they find themselves scratching their heads—why am I so unhappy?—scared, angry, depressed. Then they produce children…and the sad cycle continues.

One irrefutable need in our generation is to radically overturn the fatherhood deficiency. Our inner cities ache for the stability of men of integrity. Our meth-pocked rural areas cry out for the steadiness of men of honor. And our suburbs secretly weep for men who value and live out their commitments to their wives and children in love.

Unless God intervenes, as Cher sang, the beat goes on. Therefore a key component to any awakening, move, or reformation of God is to transform fathers. Negligence, abuse, disinterest, and absenteeism must be repented of, one father at a time.

I can almost hear the Holy Spirit urging, “There’s hope! I will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children. But you, believer—take your stand. Pray. Dig deep. Intercede for the lost, broken, distracted, and wayward men of your generation who have turned—for whatever reasons—away from their families…from their kids. Pray that they will sense an irresistible pull toward Me, encounter Me face to face, receive forgiveness and cleansing, and then by the power of My grace, turn back to their children with humility and integrity…and restore peace, acceptance, safety, and love to their families once again.”

All of us have had a father. Many of us were blessed with good fathers. Far more of us have experienced a lifetime of pain in the short span of childhood due to irresponsible, irrational, or eruptive fathering. Is it any wonder why the first stated thrust of the forerunner in Luke 1:17 was to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children? Sweeping, irrefutable outpourings of the Holy Ghost must be accompanied by a massive move among fathers turning in humble love and repentance to their children. Deep wounds will be healed, bent lives will be straightened out and restored, and Jesus will be manifested openly as Lord once again—on city streets, in suburban neighborhoods, and in small towns, farming communities, and remote regions throughout the nation.

But first things first—Pray. May the hearts of the fathers be restored to the children.

Dorothy